THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO..  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


^  ^<^ 


n 


.lA^lA^ulo 


J.  L.  M.  CURRY 


a  piograpfjp 


BY 
EDWIN   ANDERSON   ALDERMAN 

AND 

ARMISTEAD   CHURCHILL   GORDON 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &   CO.,  Ltd. 

1911 

All  righu  reserved 


Copyright,  1911,  by 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  July,  1911, 


•        « 


•  •  •  * 


•  «       •     « 

•  •      •    •  • 


•  •   . -•    •  • 

•  ,  .  «  . 


Berwick  &  Smith  Co.,  Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


e^.c>/) 


CO 

>. 

oe 
•< 

s 

I 


To  THE  Memory  of 
MARY  THOMAS   CURRY 

A   TRUE   AND    TENDER   WIFE, 

WHOSE    UNFAILING    SYMPATHY,    DEVOTED    CARE, 

AND   UNDERSTANDING   MIND, 

KEPT   YOUNG   AND    STOUT   THE   HEART 

5  OF   THIS   BRAVE 


OPTIMIST   AND   ADVOCATE. 


44328 


o 


"Let  us  live  in  the  Present  and  for  the  Future,  leav- 
ing the  dead  Past  to  take  care  of  itself, — dravnng  only 
profitable  lessons  from  that  and  all  history." 

CURRY  TO  HIS  SON. 


CONTENTS 


FAGB 

Chronology      

xi 

Preface     ........ 

.    xix 

CHAPTER 

I— "The  Dark  Corner"  .... 

1 

II — Alabama:  "Here  We  Rest" 

.     29 

III — Athenian  Days     ..... 

.     45 

IV — Harvard  and  New  England  Influences 

.     61 

V — Law  and  Legislation 

.     82 

VI — The  Bone  of  Contention    . 

.   100 

VII — "Bleeding  Kansas  "     .... 

.   114 

VIII — A  First  and  Last  Allegiance 

.   131 

IX — The  Dawn  of  War       .... 

.   141 

X — A  New  Nation     ..... 

.   153 

XI — The  Ebbing  of  the  Tide 

.   168 

XII — Peace  and  Service       .... 

.   194 

XIII — In  the  Old  Dominion 

.  211 

XIV — Politics  and  Principles 

.  234 

XV — Peabody  and  His  Trust 

.  249 

XVI — The  Land  of  the  Alhambra 

.  288 

XVII — The  Peabody  Fund  Again    . 

.  320 

XVIII — The  Birthday  of  a  King     . 

.  366 

XIX — Last  Days  and  End     .... 

.  372 

XX — Friends  and  Associates 

.  382 

XXI — Educational  Theories 

.  411 

XXII — Conclusion            ..... 

.  430 

Bibliogr.\phy    ....... 

.  453 

Membership  in  Societies           .... 

.  455 

Legislatures  Addressed  ..... 

.  456 

Index        

.  459 

IX 


CHRONOLOGY 

1823:  January  5:  William  Curry  marries  Susan  Winn. 

1825:  June  5:  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe  Curry  born. 

1826: 

1827:  Mother  dies. 

1828: 

1829:  September  4:  father  marries  Mrs.  Mary  Remsen; 

Jabez  starts  to  school  to  Mr.  Fleming. 
1830:  To  school  to  Fleming;  later,  to  Vaughn. 
1831:  Ditto. 
1832:  Ditto. 

1833:  At  school  in  Lincolnton.  y 

1834:  At  Waddell's  famous  school  at  Willington,  S.  C. 
1835:  At    home   school,    Double    Branches;    Mr.    Finn, 

teacher. 
1836:  Ditto. 
1837:  Ditto.     Father   visits   Alabama   and   buys   Kelly 

Springs,  Talladega  Co. 
1838:  Moves  with  parents  to  Alabama;  at  school  again  to 

Mr.  Finn. 
1839:  August:  Enters  Franklin  College,  called  later  Uni- 
versity of  Georgia. 
1840:  At  College. 
1841:  Ditto;  in  print  first  time. 
1842:  Junior  orator:  subject,  "Andrew  Jackson." 
1843:  August:  Graduates  from  Franklin  College;  goes  to 

Harvard;  enters  Dane  Law  School,  September  13. 
1844:  Hears  Birney,  Prentiss,  et  al.,  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
1845:  Graduates  from  Dane  Law  School;  enters  law  office 

of  Samuel  F.  Rice,  at  Talladega. 

1846:  Joins  Texas  Rangers  for  Mexican  War;  admitted  to 

the  Bar. 

zi 


xii  CHRONOLOGY 

1847:  March  4:  Marries  Ann  Alexander  Bowie;  elected 
to  Alabama  Legislature  in  August. 

1848:  Making  speeches  in  Presidential  campaign  for  Cass. 

1849:  Represents  the  State  as  Solicitor  in  Tallapoosa 
County. 

1850:  Turns  farmer. 

1851 :  Address  on  death  of  Calhoun. 

1852:  Settles  on  his  farm  three  miles  east  of  Talladega, 
where  he  lived  till  1865. 

1853:  Re-elected  to  Alabama  Legislature. 

1854:  February  3:  Bill  for  Geological  Survey;  farming 
and  practicing  law. 

1855:  Elected  third  time  to  State  Legislature;  defeats 
Know-Nothing  candidate;  is  called  the  "Ajax 
Telamon  of  the  Democracy." 

1856:  Elector  on  Democratic  Presidential  Ticket. 

1857:  December  7:  Enters  U.  S.  Congress  as  a  State- 
Rights  Democrat. 
y     1858:  February  23:  Maiden  Speech  on  Kansas  Question; 
April  27,  speech  against  Pension  Bill. 

1859:  December  10:  Speech  on  Progress  of  Anti-Slavery- 
ism. 

1860:  Speech  at  Talladega  on  the  "Perils  and  Duty  of  the 
South";  Mission  to  the  Governor  of  Maryland. 

1861:  January  21:  Resigns  from  Congress  with  other 
Alabama  Representatives;  in  Confederate  Con- 
gress at  Montgomery. 

1862:  In  Confederate  Congress  at  Richmond;  lectures  on 
"Two  Wants  of  the  Confederacy." 

1863:  Speaker  pro  tem.  in  Confederate  House;  lectures  on 
"Social  and  Political  Quicksands;"  defeated  in 
August  election;  at  Chickamauga  with  the 
"Home  Guards";  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for 
the  Confederate  Senate. 

1864:  Serves  final  term  in  Confederate  Congress,  and 
writes  the  Address  to  the  People  of  the  Confed- 
erate States;  Commissioner  under  the  Habeas 


y' 


CHRONOLOGY  xiii 

Corpus  Act;  Special  Aid  to  Gen.  Joe  Johnston; 
Special  Aid  to  Gen.  Joe  Wheeler;  Lt-Colonel, 
commanding  5th  Alabama  Regiment. 

1865:  March  16:  Assigned  command  in  North  Alabama;      ^ 
April  8,  wife  dies;  May  13,  paroled;  December  5, 
accepts  presidency  of  Howard  College.  -^ 

1866:  January  28:  Ordained  to  the  Gospel  Ministry; 
preaching,  teaching,  and  speaking  on  Education. 

1867:  June  25:  Marries  Mary  Wortham  Thomas;  June 
29,  sails  for  Europe;  July  10,  LL.D.  from  Mercer; 
October,  appointed  Professor  in  Richmond  Col- 
lege; Honorary  Member  of  Phi  Sigma  Society  of 
University  of  Mississippi. 

1868:  April  21:  Resigns  presidency  of  Howard  College; 
April  29,  leaves  Marion  for  Richmond;  May  6, 
severe  injury  to  Mrs.  Curry  at  Baltimore. 

1869:  February  6,  7:  Lectures  at  Washington  and  Lee; 
August  27,  introduced  by  Barnas  Sears  to  George 
Peabody,  at  White  Sulphur  Springs. 

1870:  April  20:  Address  at  Brooklyn:  "Conditions  and 
Prospects  of  Education  in  the  South";  June  18, 
report  leading  to  the  Baptist  Italian  Mission; 
October  11,  first  lecture  at  Richmond  College  on 
Constitutional  Law;  November  2  to  4,  has  Dr. 
Sears  for  his  guest;  December,  addresses  Joint 
Committee  of  Legislature  in  behalf  of  Richmond 
College. 

1871:  February  18:  Appointed  a  Visitor  to  the  Medical 
College  of  Virginia;  D.D.  from  Rochester  Univer- 
sity. 

1872:  Elected  a  Trustee  of  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary;  President  of  General  Baptist  Associa- 
tion. 

1873:  May  29:  Address:  "Triumphs  and  Struggles  of 
Virginia  Baptists";  October  9,  address  before  the 
World's  Evangelical  Alliance,  New  York  City. 

1874:  Address  before  the  Virginia  Agricultural  Society; 


/ 


/ 


xiv  CHRONOLOGY 

Elected  President  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention;  spoken  of 
for  United  States  Senator. 

1875:  January  3:  Enters  upon  temporary  pastorate  of 
First  Baptist  Church,  Richmond;  March  19, 
stepmother  dies;  July  3,  sails  for  Europe  for  a 
year's  absence. 

1876:  In  Europe  first  half  of  the  year;  presented  to  Hum- 
bert and  Christina. 

1877:  March  2:  Political  disabilities  removed;  March  3, 
offered  a  place  in  his  Cabinet  by  President-elect 
Hayes;  March  7,  awarded  premium  on  tract:  "A 
Baptist  Church  Radically  Different  from  Pedo- 
Baptist  Churches";  March  13,  visits  old  home 
at  Talladega;  July  31,  August  1,  visits  Dr.  Sears 
at  Staunton;  October  30-November  1,  aids  in 
entertaining  President  and  Cabinet  at  Richmond. 

1878:  January  29:  Famous  speech  in  Mozart  Hall,  Rich- 
mond, on  "Laws  and  Morals";  many  speeches 
throughout  the  State  on  the  pending  issue  of  the 
State  Debt. 

1879:  Other  speeches  on  the  State  Debt;  Professor  and 
Religious  and  Social  leader. 

1880:  March  23:  Offered  place  as  Visitor  to  West  Point; 
May  5,  sails  for  Europe;  September  24,  resumes 
duties  at  Richmond  College;  November  2,  votes 
for  Gen.  Hancock. 

1881:  January  7:  Daughter,  Susan  Lamar  Turpin,  dies; 
February  3,  elected  Peabody  Agent;  February  7, 
resigns  professorship  at  Richmond  College ;  June 
23,  elected  a  Trustee  of  Richmond  College;  given 
medal  as  Professor  of  Philosophy;  October  5, 
first  annual  report  to  Peabody  Trustees. 

1882:  Addresses  Legislatures  of  South  Carolina,  West 
Virginia,  and  Mississippi. 

1883:  May  8:  Lectures  on  Gladstone  at  Waco,  Texas;  May 
14,  700  public  school  pupils  call  on  him  at  his 


CHRONOLOGY  xv 

hotel  in  Fort  Worth ;  May  and  June,  on  a  9,000- 
mile  trip  to  Salt  Lake  City,  San  Francisco,  Yo" 
Semite  Valley;  December  18,  calls  on  Matthew 
Arnold  in  Richmond  and  hears  him  lecture;  De- 
cember 19,  visits  two  colored  schools  with  Mr. 
Arnold. 

1884:  October  11:  At  the  old  home  in  Lincoln  County, 
Georgia,  where  he  was  born. 

1885:  March  27:  Offered  head  of  Bureau  of  Education; 
September  23,  accepted  appointment  as  Minister 
to  Spain;  October  1,  resigns  presidency  of  Board 
of  Trustees  of  Farmville  Normal;  October  9,  calls 
on  J.  R.  Lowell;  November  5,  sails  for  Spain; 
November  25,  reaches  Madrid. — Alfonso  XII 
dies  at  9  a.m.  the  same  day. 

1886:  May  17:  "Assists"  at  the  birth  of  the  new  King. 

1887:  July  13:  LL.D.  from  the  University  of  Georgia; 

Armitage's  History  of  the  Baptists  published,    ^ 
with  Introduction  by  Curry. 

1888:  April:  "The  Acquisition  of  Florida,"  published  in  ^ 
the  American  Magazine  of  History;  August  6, 
resigns  as  Minister;  August  20,  resignation  ac- 
cepted "with  regret";  September  23,  lands  at 
New  York;  October  3,  after  three  years'  suspen- 
sion, re-elected  Peabody  Agent. 

1889:  "Constitutional  Government  in  Spain";  "Estab- 
lishment and  Disestablishment." 

1890:  October  1,  2:  Peabody  Trustees  hold  annual  Meet- 
ing in  New  York  City;  October  16,  the  Currys 
move  to  Washington  City,  and  occupy  their  new 
home;  October  30,  chosen  Slater  Agent. 

1891 :  October  7 :  Unanimously  elected  an  Honorary  Trus- 
tee on  the  Peabody  Board ;  October  8,  meeting  of 
Educational  Committee  of  the  Slater  Fund;  pub- 
Hshes  volume,  "William  Ewart  Gladstone." 

1892:  October  17:  Arranges  for  renewing  Peabody  Nor- 
mal College  Scholarships  to  Florida  and  Missis- 


/ 


xvi  CHRONOLOGY 

sippi.  Made  a  Trustee  of  Columbian  University, 
Washington.  (He  held  the  position  till  his 
death.) 

1893:  April  25:  Resigns  Farmville  Trusteeship;  May  19, 
entertains  the  Infanta  Eulalia  et  al.  at  Washing- 
ton. 

1894:  October  4:  Re-elected  General  Agent  of  the  Peabody 
Board;  November  21,  attends  funeral  of  Robert 

— V  C.  Winthrop;  publishes  "The  Southern  States  of 

the  American  Union." 

1895 :  January  1 1 :  Meeting  of  Slater  Trustees  in  Washing- 
ton; January  19,  sails  for  Europe;  June  1,  returns; 
October  19-28,  on  Jury  of  Awards  at  the  Atlanta 
Exposition. 

1896:  October  6:  Special  Committee  of  Peabody  Trustees 
met  to  consider  the  expediency  of  terminating 
the  Trust  in  February,  1897 — Adverse  decision; 
October  7,  Curry  re-elected  General  Agent. 

1897:  October  10:  Attends  funeral  of  Mrs.  Mary  W. 
Thomas,  mother  of  Mrs.  Curry;  December  30, 
elected  second  president  of  the  Southern  History 
Association,  to  succeed  Hon.  William  L.  Wilson. 

1898:  April  21:  Address  on  30th  anniversary  of  Hampton 
Institute;  July  4,  address  at  the  University  of 
Chicago,  on  the  Principles,  Acts,  and  Utterances 
of  John  C.  Calhoun;  publishes  "Sketch  of  George 
Peabody  and  a  History  of  the  Peabody  Educa- 
tion Fund." 

1899:  June  22:  Address  before  the  Education  Conference 
at  Capon  Springs,  West  Virginia;  December  21, 
invited  to  be  Editor-in-Chief  of  a  series  of  10 
historical  volumes,  to  be  issued  by  B.  F.  John- 
son &  Company. 

1900:  June  12:  Address  at  the  University  of  Virginia; 
June  27,  address  at  Capon  Springs;  October  9, 
address  at  Tulane  University. 

1901:  Publishes  a  "Civil  History  of  the  Government  of 


/ 
/ 


CHRONOLOGY  xvu 

the  Confederate  States,  with  Some  Personal 
Reminiscences."  On  June  15,  delivers  the  Cen- 
tennial Commencement  Address  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Georgia. 

1902:  January  27:  Elected  a  member  of  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  Society  of  William  and  Mary;  April  7,  en- 
titled "Ambassador  Extraordinary"  to  Spain; 
April  19,  sails  for  Spain;  May  13,  reaches  Madrid; 
May  15,  presents  his  Address  to  Alfonso;  May 
16,  is  decorated  by  the  Royal  Order  of  Charles 
III;  May  17,  attends  the  Coronation;  May  22, 
leaves  Madrid;  August  2,  lands  at  New  York; 
October  1,  last  meeting  with  the  Peabody  Board; 
re-elected  General  Agent,  and  $2,000  salary  au- 
thorized for  a  Secretary;  November  30  to  Decem- 
ber 2,  last  visit  and  address  to  the  Peabody  Nor- 
mal College,  at  Nashville. 

1903:  February  12 — Thursday:  Dies  at  Fernihurst,  Ashe- 
ville,  N.  C;  February  15 — Sunday:  Buried  in 
Hollywood  Cemetery,  Richmond. 


/ 


PREFACE 

The  subject  of  this  book  left  for  the  writer  of  his 
biography  "an  embarrassment  of  riches"  in  the 
voluminous  mass  of  papers,  journals  and  correspond- 
ence that  constitute  his  unpublished  literary  estate; 
so  that  the  difficulty  of  the  present  authors  in  deal- 
ing with  this  material  has  arisen  rather  in  selection 
and  co-ordination  than  from  any  other  source. 

Dr.  Curry's  mental  attitude  illustrated  a  singular 
and  remarkable  combination  of  the  vision  of  the 
literary  man,  and  the  concrete  activity  of  one  who 
does  things.  Thus  it  came  about  that  he  not  only 
achieved  results,  but  he  also  found  time  to  record 
his  achievements.  That  he  was  accumulating  mate- 
rial for  the  story  of  his  well-spent  life  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  such  a  proper  sense  of  modesty,  as  is 
rightly  adorned  by  a  just  self-esteem.  Just  as  it 
was  clear  to  him  at  the  time  he  began  to  keep  these 
records  that  his  life,  if  it  should  be  spared  to  him, 
would  be  one  of  unusual  opportunity  and  privilege, 
so  in  his  later  years  he  was  of  one  mind  with  his 
venerable  and  distinguished  associate  in  the  Peabody 
Trust,  Mr,  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  that  their  work  in 
the  administration  of  that  trust  was  a  conspicuously 
great  and  enduring  public  service. 

He  kept  seven  note-books  and  scrap-books,  apart 
from  the  diary  which  he  kept  through  many  years; 
and  in  addition  to  diary  and  note-books,  he  pre- 
served four  volumes  of  letters  and  newspaper  clip- 

xix 


XX  PEEFACE 

pings,  together  with  many  loose  sheets  and  vagrant 
scraps  of  memoranda.  His  correspondence  was  ex- 
tensive, and  refutes  the  popular  assertion  that  letter 
writing  has  been  long  a  lost  art. 

Out  of  all  this  mass  of  documentary  resource  the 
writers  of  this  biography  have  tried  to  select  such 
material  as  would,  with  proper  arrangement  in  the 
connecting  narrative,  furnish  forth  the  environment, 
and  illustrate  the  life  and  character  of  the  man  they 
sought  to  portray. 

For  invaluable  assistance  in  this  arduous  and 
difficult  task  of  selection,  and  in  the  co-ordination 
of  the  material  so  selected,  their  thanks  are  due  and 
are  here  expressed  to  Dr.  John  Walter  Wayland  of 
the  Woman's  Normal  School  at  Harrisonburg,  Vir- 
ginia. His  service  to  the  authors  was  one  requiring 
patient  energy  and  scholarly  good  sense,  and  he 
discharged  that  service  with  great  accuracy  and 
discretion. 


J.  L.  M.  CURRY 

A   BIOGRAPHY 


CHAPTER  I 


"the  dark  corner" 


The  vehement  and  freedom-loving  personality  of 
John  Wilkes  so  greatly  appealed  to  the  patriotic 
Americans  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle  that  they 
gave  the  name  of  the  eccentric  Englishman,  who  had 
boldly  espoused  their  cause,  to  three  counties  in  the 
United  States.  One  of  these,  Wilkes  County,  in  the 
northeastern  part  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  was  sub- 
divided in  the  year  1796,  and  one  of  its  subdivisions 
received  the  more  recently  illustrious  name  of  Lin- 
coln, in  memory  of  Benjamin  Lincoln,  a  prominent 
general  of  the  colonial  forces  in  the  war  with  the 
mother  country. 

Along  the  northeastern  border  of  Lincoln  County, 
and  separating  the  county  and  state  from  the  visible 
counties  of  Edgefield  and  Abbeville  lying  to  the  east 
of  it,  flows  the  Savannah  River.  Lincolnton,  the 
county  seat,  lies  near  the  centre  of  the  county,  whose 
southeastern  extremity,  wedged  into  the  angle 
formed  by  the  confluent  Savannah  and  Little  Rivers, 
came  to  be  known  in  the  early  days  of  the  country 
as  "The  Dark  Corner." 

There  is  nothing  in  frontier  history  more  charac- 
teristic of  the  pioneer  period  than  are  many  of  the 
names,  bestowed  upon  their  homes  by  the  incoming 
settlers.  "The  Dark  Corner"  was  justified  of  its 
title.     The  Indian  was  there  for  a  period,  with  the 

1 


2         J.  L.  M.  CUKRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

antagonism  of  the  conquered  towards  the  conqueror. 
In  a  wild  and  unsettled  country,  without  laws,  or 
schools,  or  libraries,  each  man  was  a  law  unto  him- 
self. This  general  spirit  of  lawlessness,  or  lack  of 
law,  with  its  attendant  characteristic  of  reliance  upon 
physical  strength  and  personal  powers,  affected  the 
social  existence  of  the  inhabitants  of  "The  Dark 
Corner  "  down  into  the  earlier  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century;  and  in  the  first  two  decades  of  that 
century  Lincoln  County  may  be  said  to  have  been 
lacking  both  in  the  sobriety  and  the  peacefulness  of 
its  population;  while,  as  is  commonly  the  case,  the 
reputation,  once  acquired,  long  survived  the  facts 
which  created  it. 

"Georgia  Scenes,"  Judge  Longstreet's  volume  of 
inimitable  humor,  written  to  illustrate  and  make 
palpable  the  earlier  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
in  that  state,  has  for  its  first  chapter  "The  Lincoln 
Rehearsal,"  a  title  suggested  in  all  probabihty  by 
the  county  which  held  "The  Dark  Corner,"  where 
characters  abounded  like  Ransy  Sniffle,  "whom 
nothing  on  earth  so  much  delighted  as  a  fight;"  and 
where  far  into  a  higher  civilization  the  conventional 
question,  "a  thousand  times  asked,"  was,  "which  is 
the  best  man,  Billy  Stallions  (Stallings)  or  Bob 
Durham?"  and  was  daily  sought  to  be  answered  by 
wager  of  fistic  battle.  But,  as  is  generally  the  case 
with  simple  people,  free  from  the  restraints  of  legal 
or  social  compulsion,  these  citizens  and  denizens  of 
"The  Dark  Corner"  had  the  virtues  that  accompany 
their  faults.  They  were  frank  and  genial  in  their 
hospitality,  and  generous  in  their  dealings  with 
both  friend  and  stranger.  Their  kinship  to  nature 
was  close;    and,  if  their  passions  were  elemental, 


''  THE   DARK   CORNER  "  3 

their  characters  took  on  a  certain  aspect  of  nobility 
in  their  truthfulness,  their  generosity,  their  courage, 
and  their  hardihood.  The  heroic  drama  of  our 
national  expansion  was  then  just  getting  under  way. 
The  conquest  of  the  land  of  a  virgin  continent,  now 
ended,  was  then  beginning.  This  region  was  the 
West — a  spiritual  and  idealistic  as  well  as  a  geo- 
graphical term,  for  wherever  new  peoples,  new  forces 
and  new  ideals  are  modifying  old  conditions — that 
land  is  the  West. 

Here,  in  the  very  heart  of  "The  Dark  Corner" — 
"right  in  the  center,"  he  writes  of  it — ere  the  sun- 
light of  a  later  civilization  had  lifted  the  shadows — 
was  born  on  Sunday,  June  5,  1825,  Jabez  Lamar 
Monroe  Curry. 

Jabez  was  a  name  that  ought  never  to  have  been 
bestowed,  save  with  a  full  sense  of  the  responsibihty 
incurred  by  the  giver  in  its  bestowal.  It  may  have 
been  that  it  was  conferred  with  some  subtle  and 
indefinable  prescience  on  the  part  of  the  giver  that 
the  bearer  of  it  was  to  witness  and  to  help  toward 
the  healings  of  the  distress  of  his  people;  for  Jabez 
is,  by  interpretation  of  the  Hebrew,  "sorrow,  or 
trouble;"  or  else  his  parents,  with  some  like  un- 
conscious anticipation,  may  have  beheld  the  great- 
ness of  their  son's  future,  and  named  him  for  him  of 
old,  who  "was  more  honourable  than  his  brethren; 
and  his  mother  called  him  Jabez;"  or,  as  is  more 
probable,  his  parents  received  their  chief  inspirations 
and  enthusiasms  from  religion  and  politics,  and 
poured  a  rather  wholesale  broadside  of  both  upon 
the  helpless  babe. 

Of  his  entire  name,  which  as  originally  bestowed 
was  even  more  than  he  himself  could  bear,  he  writes 


4         J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

in  his  "Diary,"  with  a  certain  feeUng  that  is  not 
altogether  destitute  of  impatience: — 

The  Jabez  is  an  honored  Bible  name,  and  was  borne  by 
Jabez  Marshall,  a  popular  Baptist  preacher  in  Georgia; 
and  by  Jabez  Curry,  who  died  in  Perry  County,  Alabama, 
in  1873 — a  favorite  nephew  of  my  father.  Lafayertte  was 
the  nation's  guest  when  I  was  born,  and  my  father,  in 
token  of  gratitude  to  the  friend  of  Washington,  saddled 
me  with  the  name;  but  I  threw  it  aside  and  substituted 
Lamar.  Monroe  was  President  in  1825;  so  I  had  to  take 
that  burden  also.  I  know  no  good  from  my  long  name, 
but  not  a  httle  inconvenience. 

The  sympathy  of  the  reader  must  go  out  to  the 
writer  of  the  above  poignant  paragraph;  and  a  les- 
son to  pious  or  patriotic  or  thoughtless  parents  may 
be  found  in  the  reflection  that  a  far  more  befitting 
name,  for  the  great  educational  figure  of  his  time, 
would  have  been  Lamar  Curry. 

The  early  boyhood  of  Jabez  was  made  familiar 
with  many  "Georgia  Scenes"  surpassing  in  eccen- 
tricity and  outlawry  even  those  of  which  the  story- 
teller has  made  literature.  He  was  a  witness,  as  he 
tells  us  in  the  desultory  pages  of  a  journal  which  he 
kept  in  later  years,  of  many  hand-to-hand  fights 
and  fierce  personal  encounters.  The  spirit  of  the 
Revolution  continued,  long  after  its  close,  to  dom- 
inate the  section  where  he  was  born,  a  hill  country, 
into  which  through  the  generations  had  fled  those 
who  sought  escape  from  bondage  or  crime,  or  who 
desired  a  larger  freedom  of  thought  and  action  than 
prevailed  in  the  more  civilized  parts  of  the  new 
Republic;  and  "Tory"  was,  even  in  Curry's  boy- 
hood, a  term  of  opprobrium,  quiet  submission  to 
which  carried  with  it  the  stigma  of  cowardice.     Out 


''THE   DARK   CORNER '»  5 

of  ''The  Dark  Corner,"  and  from  other  parts  of  the 
county,  the  lad  was  wont  to  see  gathered  at  stated 
intervals  its  citizen  soldiery  to  the  militia  musters — 
a  period  while  they  lasted,  of  unrestrained  festivity 
rather  than  of  military  restriction;  and  thither,  too, 
on  important  occasions,  when  a  representative  in  the 
legislature  or  in  the  Federal  Congress,  or  a  governor 
or  other  high  state  official  was  to  be  chosen,  came 
the  freeholders  to  cast  their  votes  viva  voce  in  the 
presence  of  the  sheriff  and  the  election  officers,  and 
to  be  thanked  by  the  candidate  who  received  them. 
No  less  in  the  infrequent  sessions  of  the  courts  of 
that  earlier  period  was  illustrated  the  primitive  and 
natural  wildness  of  country  and  people.  A  striking 
story  is  told  in  the  autobiography  of  a  prominent 
man  who  flourished  in  an  adjoining  state,  which 
serves  to  emphasize  the  state  of  society  then  prev- 
alent throughout  that  section. 

"  Pushmatahaw,  a  Choctaw  chief,"  says  the  relator, 
who  when  a  very  young  man,  and  a  new  comer  to  the 
county  in  which  the  incident  occurred,  had  just  been  made 
prosecuting  attorney,  "  had  killed  one  of  his  subjects.  In 
doing  this,  he  acted  under  his  tribal  authority,  and  was  so 
far  justifiable.  But  under  our  law,  which  had  been  ex- 
tended over  all  the  territory  conveyed  by  the  Indians  to 
the  general  government,  the  execution  became  murder. 
Pushmatahaw  exercised  great  control  and  influence  over 
his  tribe. 

"He  had  in  some  way  incurred  the  hatred  of  the  land 
companies  organized  to  purchase  reservations.  It  was 
important  to  them  that  he  should  be  got  out  of  the  way; 
and  to  this  end  they  employed  a  number  of  able  attorneys 
to  aid  me  in  the  prosecution.  To  avoid  censure,  it  was  de- 
termined that  there  should  be  only  one  speaker. 

"The  grand  jury  of  Kemper  County  reported  a  bill  of 


6         J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

indictment,  and  all  the  requisite  preliminaries  were  per- 
formed by  me  preparatory  to  an  early  trial.  I  was  noti- 
fied that  Mr.  Samuel  J.  Gholson  would  aid  me  in  the  argu- 
ment of  the  case  before  the  jury. 

''The  defence  had  secured  the  services  of  some  of  the 
ablest  lawyers  in  the  state  from  Vicksburg  and  Jackson. 
A  day  for  trial  had  been  appointed,  and  witnesses  sum- 
moned. I  had,  soon  after  my  arrival  in  DeKalb,  the  county 
seat  of  Kemper,  been  introduced  to  a  young  Virginian, 
who  had  lately  come  there  to  practise  law,  and  who  made 
from  the  first  a  marked  impression  on  me.  This  was 
Joseph  G.  Baldwin,  afterwards  so  widely  known  both  as 
a  lawyer  and  a  literary  man.  Two  days  before  the  trial  he 
came  to  me,  and  requested  to  be  allowed  to  take  part  in 
the  argument,  as  it  might  lead  to  future  success  if  he  ap- 
peared in  a  case  of  so  much  interest.  This  I  consented  to 
do,  and  carried  my  point  against  great  opposition  from  my 
colleagues.  The  testimony  was  soon  ended.  All  the  facts 
were  against  the  defendant,  and  the  corpus  delicti  was 
clearly  shown.  It  was  necessary  to  put  the  defence  en- 
tirely upon  tribal  authority. 

"The  argument  was  opened  for  the  State  by  Gholson  in 
a  characteristic  speech.  When  Mr.  Joe  Baldwin  arose,  he 
was  at  first  listened  to  with  such  slight  curiosity  and  gen- 
eral indifference  as  might  be  expected  for  a  very  young 
man,  entirely  unknown  to  his  audience.  In  a  few  mo- 
ments this  was  changed  to  absorbing  interest  and  atten- 
tion. His  speech  was  marked  by  the  clearest  and  most 
convincing  logic,  rising  at  times  into  vivid  oratory.  It 
was  evident  that  this  modest  young  man,  though  yet  to 
fortune  and  to  fame  unknown,  was  destined  to  take  no 
obscure  place  in  his  day  and  generation. 

"Other  arguments  were  made,  and  the  case  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  jury.  After  short  deliberation  a  verdict  of 
guilty  was  rendered.  The  defendant  was  informed  of  the 
result,  and  that  he  would  be  hung.  He  was  shocked  at  the 
mode  of  death,  and  made  pathetic  appeals  against  such  an 


' '  THE   DARK   CORNER  ' '  7 

indignity,  claiming  his  right  to  die  hke  a  warrior.  The 
court  had  no  power  to  interfere,  and  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced according  to  the  prescribed  forms  of  our  law. 
When  this  was  done,  Pushmatahaw  rose  to  his  full  height, 
and  gave  vent  to  a  wild  war-whoop,  so  full  of  rage  and 
despair  that  it  was  terrible  to  hear.  As  there  were  many 
Indians  present,  there  was  for  a  time  danger  of  attempted 
rescue. 

"Application  for  pardon  was  made  to  the  governor,  and 
the  chief  had  strong  hope  that  it  would  be  granted.  A  few 
days  before  that  appointed  for  the  execution,  he  was  in- 
formed that  the  governor  had  refused  the  pardon,  and  that 
he  must  die  what  he  considered  the  death  of  a  dog.  This 
communication  was  made  to  the  unhappy  chief  in  cold- 
blooded and  inhuman  malice,  and  the  result  came  near 
proving  fatal.  Pushmatahaw  broke  a  bottle  which 
chanced  to  be  in  his  cell,  and  with  a  piece  of  the  glass 
severed  an  artery  in  his  left  arm.  He  would  have  died  in  a 
short  time  from  loss  of  blood,  if  the  sheriff  had  not  made 
an  accidental  visit  to  the  prisoner.  A  pardon  was  granted 
and  sent  to  the  sheriff  by  an  express,  in  time  to  save  the 
life  of  the  Choctaw  chief." 

"  It's  a  far  cry  to  Lochaw,"  was  the  boast  of  the 
Scotch  Campbell,  whose  broad  lands  extended  over 
so  large  a  space  of  the  Highlands.  It  seems  ''a  far- 
ther cry"  in  point  of  time  from  the  year  1835,  when 
Jabez  Curry  was  a  boy  ten  years  old  in  ''The  Dark 
Corner,"  and  Reuben  Davis,  later  judge  of  the  High 
Court  of  Appeals,  colonel  in  the  war  with  Mexico, 
member  of  Congress,  and  Confederate  brigadier  gen- 
eral, was  prosecuting  the  Indian  chief,  Pushmatahaw, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  beardless  Joe  Baldwin, 
later  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Cali- 
fornia, who  was  destined  to  leave  a  larger  fame  than 
is  left  by  the  most  eminent  lawyers,  in  his  "Flush 


8         J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Times"  and  "Party  Leaders," — down  to  the  first 
decade  in  the  twentieth  century,  when  Curry  rep- 
resented the  government  of  the  United  States  as  its 
special  ambassador  at  the  coronation  of  the  present 
King  of  Spain,  in  the  administration  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

The  Currys  were  of  Scotch  origin;  and  in  Scotland 
the  name  seems  to  have  had  the  earlier  spelling  of 
Currie.  In  one  of  the  will-books  of  Lincoln  County 
was  recorded  on  March  2,  1827,  the  will  of  Thomas 
Curry.  By  this  testamentary  instrument  the  maker 
of  it  appointed  two  of  his  sons,  James  and  William, 
his  executors;  and  to  William  he  devised  the  old 
home-place  in  "The  Dark  Corner,"  whereon  was 
located  the  family  graveyard.  William  Curry  was 
the  father  of  Jabez ;  and  his  mother  was  Susan  Winn, 
whom  William  Curry  married  in  Lincoln  County  on 
January  5,  1823.  These  Winns  are  said  to  have 
been  of  Welsh  extraction;  and  in  any  event  the 
names  both  of  Currie  and  Winn  indicate  a  purely 
British  origin,  and  illustrate  in  conjunction  with  the 
names,  still  surviving  there,  of  the  people  of  that 
section,  the  theory  of  Prof.  Nathaniel  S.  Shaler,  in 
his  "Nature  and  Man  in  America,"  that  nowhere  in 
the  western  world,  down  to  the  beginning  of  the  War 
between  the  States  in  1861,  did  the  unadulterated 
strain  of  descent  from  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  so  prevail  as  in  a  radius  of  three  or  four 
hundred  miles  of  the  East  Tennessee  Mountains. 
Both  of  these  names  are  still  to  be  found,  as  of  great 
antiquity,  upon  the  pages  of  records  that  hold  the 
pedigrees  of  the  county  families  of  the  United  King- 
dom. Curry  records  in  one  of  his  note  books  the 
fact  that  a  General  Winn,  after  whom  Winnsboro, 


( ( 


THE   DARK   CORNER" 


in  South  Carolina,  was  named,  was  an  officer  of  con- 
siderable local  distinction  in  the  Revolutionary 
Army;  and  that  later  he  was  for  many  years  a  rep- 
resentative in  the  United  States  Congress,  where  he 
was  a  colleague  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  voted  for  the 
War  of  1812.  The  Welsh  Winns  were  connected 
with  the  French  Lamars,  and  the  Scotch  Currys  with 
the  English  Walkers;  so  that  Curry  might  well  say 
of  himself:  ''I  can  hardly  call  myself  an  Anglo- 
Saxon,  as  in  my  veins  flow  English  blood,  Scotch, 
Welsh,  and  French."  Yet,  after  all,  he  was,  save 
for  the  touch  of  Gallic  infusion,  a  typical  product  of 
the  British  races,  which  gave  a  character  and  dis- 
tinctiveness to  the  earlier  colonial  settlers  of  the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  that  was  transmitted  untainted 
to  their  descendants  who  later  pressed  forward  into 
the  Southern  and  Southwestern  States.  Curry, 
however,  with  the  real  democratic  spirit,  typical  of 
the  men  of  the  Revolutionary  period,  and  of  the  two 
generations  which  succeeded,  laid  no  claim  to  an 
aristocratic  origin,  however  much  he  might  have 
found  himself  by  research  entitled  to  it.  It  was 
sufficient  to  him  always  to  know  that  he  was  an 
American;  and  his  Americanism  was  consistently 
of  so  broad  and  catholic  a  type  as  to  include  within 
its  comprehension  every  section  and  every  citizen 
of  his  country. 

Before  Jabez  Curry  saw  the  light  of  day  in  "The 
Dark  Corner"  of  Lincoln  County,  another  child  had 
been  born  to  his  parents.  This  was  Jackson  C. 
Curry,  who  was  a  man  of  sterHng  honesty  and  worth, 
and  who  spent  his  maturer  years  at  Newbern,  in 
North  Carolina,  where  he  was  a  deacon  in  the  Baptist 
Church.    With  the  courage  and  the  patriotism  of 


10       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

the  youth  of  his  generation,  when  war  reddened  the 
horizon  in  1861,  Jackson  Curry  entered  the  Confed- 
erate Army,  and  died  in  the  service  at  DemopoHs, 
Alabama,  in  1863,  having  achieved  the  rank  of 
captain,  and  leaving  to  survive  him  two  sons  and 
three  daughters. 

One  of  Jabez  Curry's  earHest  recollections,  as  he 
records  it  in  his  ''Journal,"  was  a  faint  and  faded 
memory  of  his  father's  second  marriage,  which  oc- 
curred September  4,  1829,  when  the  boy  was  a  little 
over  four  years  old.  His  mother  and  an  infant 
brother  had  died  in  1827.  With  a  wistfulness,  that 
grows  into  pathos  in  its  conclusion,  he  wrote  of  her, 
fifty  years  later,  this  paragraph: — 

Of  course  I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  seen  her. 
Very  many  persons  have  told  me  that  she  was  exceedingly 
beautiful.  It  has  been  a  source  of  sincerest  regret  that  I 
was  not  trained  in  my  youngest  years  by  a  loving  mother. 
Delicate  and  susceptible,  my  life  might  have  been  differ- 
ent; but  God  knows  best.  I  have  a  thousand  times  wished 
for  her  likeness;  but  in  her  day  there  were  no  daguerreo- 
types or  photographs;  and  few  persons  had  portraits 
painted. 

Though  thus  lamenting,  with  the  retrospection 
which  took  him  back  to  earHest  infancy,  this  depriva- 
tion of  maternal  tenderness  and  sohcitude, — a  loss 
which  the  most  callous  heart  must  of  necessity 
regret, — he  has  not  failed  to  record  the  kindliness 
of  his  relations  with  his  father's  second  wife,  and  his 
sense  of  indebtedness  to  her. 

"My  stepmother  was  a  real  mother  to  me,"  he  writes, 
"and  loved  me  as  she  did  her  own  children.  I  gladly  and 
gratefully  bear  this  testimony  to  her  faithfulness,  kind- 
ness and  love." 


"  THE   DARK   CORNER  "  11 

The  second  wife  of  William  Curry  was  Mrs.  Mary 
Remsen,  a  widow,  who  was  born  Murray,  and  whose 
father  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier.  She  was  a 
woman  of  social  prominence  in  her  community;  and 
her  brother,  the  Honorable  Thomas  W.  Murray,  was 
a  figure  of  more  than  local  distinction,  in  whose 
honor  one  of  the  counties  of  the  State  was  sub- 
sequently named.  Of  her  first  marriage  had  been 
born  a  son,  David  H.  Remsen,  who  grew  up  in  the 
household  of  William  Curry  as  one  of  his  own  family, 
and  was  the  playmate  and  associate,  while  he  was 
treated  as  the  brother,  of  Jackson  and  Jabez  Curry. 
Of  William  Curry's  second  marriage  were  born  Mark 
Shipp  Curry,  Thomas  Curry,  Walker  Ciu*ry,  and 
James  A.  Curry,  of  the  latter  of  whom  Dr.  Curry 
writes  in  his  diary  under  date  of  July  3,  1894,  *'My 
half-brother,  James  A.  Curry,  died  in  Anniston, 
Alabama."  There  seems  to  be  no  fm-ther  record  of 
the  subsequent  career  of  Mark  Shipp  Curry,  the 
eldest  of  the  half-brothers;  but  Thomas  Cm-ry  was 
a  soldier  of  the  Confederacy,  and  became  a  captain 
in  the  Fifty-third  Alabama  regiment,  and  Walker 
Ciu-ry  achieved  eminence  as  a  physician,  and  was  a 
practitioner  of  his  profession  in  New  York  City; 
while  James  A.  Curry  was  a  prominent  man  in  the 
development  of  the  mineral  resources  of  Alabama. 
He  was  a  pioneer  in  the  iron  business,  and  with 
Samuel  Clabaugh  in  1863  erected  and  operated  a 
charcoal  furnace  in  Talladega  County.  Prior  to  the 
breaking  out  of  the  War  between  the  States,  James 
A.  Curry  had  been  a  merchant  of  large  means  in  the 
town  of  Talladega;  and  he  owned  the  lands  on  Salt 
Creek  in  that  county  on  which  his  and  Clabaugh's 
charcoal  pig-iron  furnace  was  erected,  which  was 


12       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

destroyed  by  the  Federal  troops  a  year  or  two  later. 
William  Curry,  the  father,  was  of  the  generation 
which  succeeded  that  of  the  pioneers  in  Wilkes  and 
Lincoln  Counties;  and  this  second  generation  in- 
herited the  moral  fibre  of  their  pioneer  progenitors. 
Though  the  feud  and  the  foray  had  not  in  his  time 
altogether  passed  away,  and  the  original  "char- 
acter" still  lent  variety  and  the  not  infrequent  spice 
of  excitement  to  the  community  in  which  he  lived, 
these  men  of  the  Lower  South  of  that  period  were 
not  always,  or  even  frequently,  the  whiskey-drinking, 
swaggering  rowdies  of  revolver  and  bowie-knife,  that 
caricature  and  libel  have  portrayed  them. 

"It  is  true,"  writes  a  competent  chronicler  of  them  and 
of  their  times,  "that  many  of  them  drank  hard,  swore 
freely,  and  were  utterly  reckless  of  consequences  when 
their  passions  were  aroused.  But  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  great  body  of  them  were  sober,  industrious  men,  who 
met  hardships  and  toil  with  patient  courage,  and  whose 
hands  were  as  ready  to  extend  help  as  they  were  to  resist 
violence  and  oppression.  They  took  life  jovially,  and  en- 
joyed such  pleasures  as  they  could  come  by.  Although  a 
God-fearing  people, — for  infidelity  was  unknown, — there 
was  nothing  straight-laced  about  their  religion.  They  at- 
tended divine  worship  in  a  reverent  spirit  and  endeavored 
to  do  their  duty  to  God  and  man,  so  far  as  they  saw  it. 
Even  the  strictest  of  them  made  no  scruple  about  a  social 
glass,  or  a  lively  dance,  or  a  game  of  cards,  or  even  of  an 
honest  hand  to  hand  fight  under  due  provocation." 

This  naive  depiction  of  a  social  existence  in  which 
the  writer  personally  figured,  continues: — 

Their  creed  was  generally  simple.  A  man  ought  to  fear 
God  and  mind  his  business.  He  should  be  respectful  and 
courteous  to  all  women;  he  should  love  his  friends  and  hate 


''  THE   DARK   CORNER  "  13 

his  enemies.  He  should  eat  when  he  was  hungry,  drink 
when  he  was  thirsty,  dance  when  he  was  merry,  vote  for 
the  candidate  he  liked  best,  and  knock  down  any  man  who 
questioned  his  right  to  these  privileges.  He  was  almost 
always  an  ardent  politician,  and  a  strong  partisan  on 
whichever  side  he  enlisted.  But  a  man  would  have  been 
held  in  reprobation  who  should  attempt  to  serve  his  party 
by  fraud  and  corruption.  There  was  no  ballot-box  stuf- 
fing. 

If  creed  and  custom  were  alike  primitive,  they 
were  nevertheless  manly  and  not  insufficient;  and 
their  crudity  emphasized  an  integrity  that  was  the 
backbone  of  their  social  life. 

Here  in  Lincoln  County,  amid  such  surroundings, 
and  touched  by  such  influences  as  have  been  nar- 
rated, William  Curry  lived,  and  his  son  Jabez  spent 
his  earlier  years.  History  makes  mention  on  its 
lesser  pages  of  many  names  of  the  time  and  vicin- 
ity,— for  the  most  part  stout  English  and  Scotch 
and  Welsh  names,  with  a  touch  of  the  Gallic. 
Among  the  first  settlers  of  the  county  whose  names 
are  thus  preserved  in  the  local  annals  were  Thomas 
Murray,  the  father  of  William  Curry's  second 
wife,  Robert  Walton,  John  Lockhart,  B.  Lockhart, 
Thomas  Mitchell,  Sterne  Simmons,  J.  Stovall, 
Captain  John  Lamar,  Stephen  Handspiker,  M. 
Henley,  Robert  Fleming,  James  Wallace  and  Peter 
Lamar.  The  two  most  prominent  men  of  the 
county  in  William  Curry's  time  appear  to  have 
been  his  brother-in-law,  Thomas  W.  Murray,  and 
Judge  John  M.  Dooley,  who  like  Murray  also  had 
the  honor  of  having  a  county  of  the  State  named 
for  him. 

Of  the  Lamars,   whose  patronymic  Curry  sub- 


14       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

stituted  for  that  of  La  Fayette,  which  his  father 
had  patriotically  bestowed  upon  him,  and  whose 
blood  mingled  with  the  other  strains  in  his  veins, 
the  story  of  the  South  contains  no  little.  The  two 
most  famous  of  the  name  and  family,  since  their 
Huguenot  ancestor  first  settled  in  the  western  world, 
was  Mirabeau  B.  Lamar,  orator,  poet,  soldier  and 
statesman,  compatriot  of  Sam  Houston,  Secretary 
of  War  of  the  Republic  of  Texas,  the  Commander- 
in-chief  of  its  armies,  its  Vice-President,  and  for 
three  years  its  President  without  opposition;  and 
his  no  less  distinguished  nephew,  Lucius  Quintus 
Curtius  Lamar,  fitted  out  like  his  uncle  and  like 
his  kinsman,  Jabez  Curry,  with  extraordinary 
names,  after  the  apparent  fashion  of  the  times,  who 
as  Congressman,  author  of  the  Mississippi  Ordinance 
of  Secession,  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the  Nineteenth 
Mississippi  regiment.  Minister  to  Russia  from  the 
Confederate  States,  Secretary  of  the  Interior  and 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
touched  nothing  that  he  did  not  adorn. 

The  religious  influences  of  the  period  in  Lincoln 
County  emanated  from  the  ministers  and  members, 
for  the  most  part,  of  two  denominations, — the 
Methodists  and  Baptists, — whose  missionaries  have 
been  from  the  earliest  times  in  the  rugged  forefront 
of  pioneer  progress  in  America.  The  "hardshell" 
or  primitive  Baptist  of  that  period  was  a  mighty 
force  in  the  development  of  young  communities. 
Religion  and  sestheticism  had  not  joined  hands  in 
that  rough  world.  The  preacher  preached  a  simple, 
fearful  creed,  compounded  strangely  of  tenderness 
and  pitilessness,  and  lived  an  heroic  unselfish  life, 
and  his  doctrines  and  practices  made  such  an  impres- 


**  THE   DARK   CORNER  "  15 

sion  upon  the  family  of  William  Curry  that  all  the 
culture  and  cosmopolitanism  of  the  widest  travel 
and  experience  could  not  wean  his  distinguished  son 
from  the  faith  of  his  early  years. 

When  about  four  years  old,  Jabez  Curry  was  sent 
to  an  ''old  field  school"  in  "The  Dark  Corner," 
where  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic  were  taught 
by  one  Joel  Fleming,  the  master.  The  character 
and  regimen  of  the  homes  of  the  vicinity  were  more 
or  less  primitive  and  simple.  The  furniture  was 
plain  and  serviceable.  The  floors  were  generally 
bare  of  carpets  or  coverings.  These  primitive  homes 
contained  a  population  that  has  been  generally  de- 
scribed as  having  been  "raised  on  pot-liquor,  and 
fortified  from  early  youth  on  jowl  and  greens,  and 
buttermilk,  and  hog-meat  smoked  to  the  last  turn, 
to  say  nothing  of  cornpone  with  reasonable  gravy." 
The  schools,  school-houses  and  schoolmasters 
matched  the  homes.  The  old  field  school-house, 
which  the  little  boy  attended,  was  built  of  logs, 
with  the  interstices  daubed  with  clay.  It  was  set 
in  a  woods,  and  was  roofed  with  puncheons.  There 
was  but  one  door;  and  the  shutter  of  the  single 
unglazed  window  swung  on  creaking  wooden  hinges. 
The  window  itself  was  simply  a  hole  in  the  wall, 
opposite  the  huge  fireplace,  made  by  cutting  out  a 
section  of  one  of  the  logs.  Alongside  this  narrow 
opening  was  a  wide  plank,  fastened  against  the  wall, 
which  was  used  by  the  school-children  as  a  writing 
desk.  The  first-formed  letters  of  Jabez  Curry, 
learned  in  the  little  log  school-house  in  the  Georgia 
woods,  were  made  with  a  goose-quill  pen,  which  was 
the  exclusive  instrument  of  writing, — the  manufac- 
ture of  which,  no  less  than  its  use,  was  sedulously 


16       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

taught  by  all  well-minded  teachers  in  the  old  field- 
schools.  An  accompaniment  of  the  quill-pen  was 
the  sand-box,  whose  contents  took  the  place  of  the 
more  modern  blotting-paper;  and  often  master  and 
pupils  manufactured  also  the  ink  that  they  wrote 
with, — a  writing  fluid  which  must  have  been  well- 
made,  for  the  public  records  that  are  its  monument 
are  still  clear  and  legible  in  a  new  century. 

The  "old  field  schools"  were  co-educational;  and 
boys  and  girls  went  to  school  together.  In  warm 
weather,  the  larger  boys  were  permitted  to  study 
their  lessons  outside  the  school-house,  beneath  the 
trees.  There  were  no  long  vacations;  but  when  a 
holiday  was  desired  for  any  special  occasion,  the 
master  was  not  over  strenuous  in  resisting  the  request 
of  the  children.  Sometimes  a  mild  compulsion  was 
resorted  to  by  the  children,  when  their  holiday  peti- 
tion was  rejected,  and  the  master  would  be  "barred 
out."  If  the  pedagogue  resisted  and  made  fight, 
the  youngsters  met  force  with  force;  and  Curry  has 
left  among  his  papers  a  note  in  which  he  relates  how, 
on  one  occasion,  young  though  he  was,  he  partici- 
pated in  one  of  these  "lock-outs"  against  Mr. 
Fleming.  The  master  seems  to  have  been  beloved 
by  the  children,  but  as,  at  the  time  of  this  episode, 
he  proved  recalcitrant  when  approached  for  a  holi- 
day, his  affectionate  pupils  proceeded  first  to  bar 
him  out;  and  later,  the  larger  boys  bore  the  strug- 
gling pedagogue  to  the  neighboring  creek,  and  soused 
him  into  its  shallow  depths,  while  even  the  little 
Jabez  waded  into  the  stream,  and  with  both  small 
hands  flung  water  on  his  preceptor,  while  the  big 
boys  held  him  down.  It  is  recorded  that  the  wise 
and  simple  master  had  taken  advantage  of  the  op- 


( ( 


THE   DARK   CORNER  "  17 


portunity,  generously  afforded  him,  prior  to  the 
"ducking,"  to  leave  his  tobacco-pouch  on  dry  land; 
and  that  in  recognition  of  the  kindliness  of  his  ad- 
versaries in  this  respect,  he  took  his  enforced  plunge 
with  serene  good  humor.  The  holiday  was  gained; 
and  the  pedagogic  function  in  due  season  resumed, 
with  no  apparent  diminution  or  impairment  of  the 
usual  discipline,  and  no  intimation  of  diminished 
dignity. 

It  has  been  correctly  said  by  an  intelligent  writer 
on  the  subject  of  elementary  education  at  the  South 
during  this  early  period,  that: — 

The  old  academies  of  the  South  were  many  of  them  ex- 
cellent schools,  and  in  some  respects  have  not  yet  been 
surpassed.  The  "old  field"  school  was  often  good;  but 
the  whole  arrangement  was  without  adequate  supervision, 
was  expensive  and  uncertain,  and  did  not  reach  many  of 
our  people.  The  percentage  of  illiteracy  was  high,  and 
was  not  decreasing. 

In  the  later  'forties  the  spirit  of  the  great  common  school 
revival,  which  had  been  led  by  Horace  Mann,  began  to 
influence  the  South;  and  in  the  early  'fifties  the  messages 
of  the  Southern  governors  contained  many  eloquent  ap- 
peals for  a  state  system  of  schools  for  all  the  children,  and 
if  war  had  not  intervened,  their  appeals  would  have 
quickly  taken  form  in  a  progressive  system  of  public  edu- 
cation. 

Northern  teachers  were  frequent  in  the  Southern 
States,  and  especially  young  college  graduates  from 
New  England,  who  migrated  to  the  newly  developing 
section  of  the  country,  with  the  idea  of  advancing 
their  fortunes,  sooner  or  later,  in  the  professions  of 
law  and  medicine,  or  by  taking  advantage  of  the 
many  opportunities  which   the  time   and  locality 


18       J.  L.  M.  CUKRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

offered.  So  it  happened  that  young  Curry's  next 
teacher  was  a  Mr.  Vaughan,  from  Maine,  who  seems 
not  to  have  possessed  the  equable  temper  and  for- 
giving spirit  of  Mr.  Fleming.  He  was  a  rigorous  and 
severe  disciplinarian,  but  is  supposed  to  have  been 
an  excellent  instructor. 

"In  1833,  the  stars  fell."  This  date  of  the  great 
meteoric  shower,  Curry,  who  was  then  in  his  eighth 
year,  recalled  vividly  in  later  life ;  associating  it  with 
what  is  always  an  occasion  of  vast  importance  in  the 
life  of  a  lad, — his  departure  from  home,  to  attend 
school  at  a  distance.  He  was  sent  from  his  father's 
home,  in  "The  Dark  Corner,"  to  Lincolnton,  where 
his  grandmother  lived;  and,  boarding  with  her,  was 
put  to  school  with  the  Reverend  Mr.  McKerley,  the 
minister  of  what  was  then  perhaps  the  sole  Presby- 
terian church,  and  with  a  scant  congregation,  in  the 
county.  Mr.  McKerley,  if  his  name  counts  for 
aught,  was  of  Galloway  Scotch  stock ;  and,  after  the 
fashion  of  Presbyterian  ministers  of  that  day  no  less 
than  of  the  present,  was  a  scholar.  Under  him 
Jabez  Curry  began  the  study  of  Latin, — a  language 
whose  acquisition  stood  him  in  good  subsequent 
stead  in  his  later  career  as  lawyer,  politician,  and 
preacher;  and  which  he  doubtless  ascertained  to  be 
of  incalculable  value  to  him  in  his  study  of  the 
southern  languages  of  Europe  during  his  distin- 
guished career  as  diplomat  and  Ambassador. 

At  Mr.  McKerley's  school,  his  cousin,  Lafayette 
Lamar,  was  his  classmate  and  most  intimate  friend; 
and  the  cordial  and  affectionate  association  between 
the  two  young  lads,  formed  at  Lincolnton,  was  con- 
tinued and  cemented  in  their  later  association  at 
college. 


''  THE   DARK   CORNER  "  19 

During  the  year  young  Lamar's  sister  was  mar- 
ried; and  Curry  records  that  the  rows  of  iced 
cakes,  set  in  the  sun  to  dry,  ere  they  should  "furnish 
forth  the  marriage  feast,"  were  more  wonderful  to 
his  sense  of  interest  and  curiosity  than  had  been 
the  falling  stars.  They  were  the  first  iced  cakes  of 
his  boyish  experience.  He  had  attended  once  before 
the  nuptials  of  a  young  woman  cousin;  but,  for  some 
virtue  of  the  bride,  or  yet  other  undisclosed  reason, 
there  had  been  no  iced  cakes  set  out  to  harden  in 
the  sun;  and  so  he  tells  that  the  only  thing  he  re- 
membered in  connection  with  that  interesting  event 
was  that  he  sat  upon  a  fence,  with  some  other  boys, 
and  while  peeling  a  turnip,  cut  his  hand,  making  a 
gash,  the  scar  of  which  he  carried  through  life. 

On  a  Saturday,  during  his  school  days  at  Lincoln- 
ton,  in  company  with  young  Lamar  and  a  companion 
named  Frayser,  he  went  into  the  courthouse,  and 
with  the  reckless  daring  of  youth,  drew  a  series  of 
figures  in  charcoal  on  the  whitewashed  walls  of  the 
temple  of  justice.  His  uncle,  Peter  Lamar,  hap- 
pened to  come  in  and  catch  the  boys  in  their  vandal 
act,  and  scolded  them  severely,  threatening  them 
with  confinement  in  jail  and  other  condign  punish- 
ment. The  threat  was  one  that  suggested  humilia- 
tion and  terror;  for  Jabez  had,  on  previous  occasion, 
been  permitted  to  see  the  inside  of  the  county  jail  at 
Lincolnton. 

Many  famous  names  and  incidents  center  about 
that  old  courthouse  in  Lincolnton.  The  courthouse 
of  the  frontier  world,  particularly  in  southern  life, 
was  a  combination  of  what  the  theatre  was  to  the 
Greeks,  the  forum  to  the  Romans,  the  Cathedral  to 
the  mediaeval  world,  the  piazza  or  the  market  place 


20       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

to  the  denizens  of  sunny  lands,  and  the  club  to  the 
dwellers  in  modern  cities.  It  centered  in  itself  and 
absorbed  all  secular  interests.  Excitements  and 
thrills  were  to  be  experienced  there.  Ambitions 
were  born  there,  ideals  formed,  and  patriotism 
warmed  and  directed.  Here  the  great  and  the  near- 
great  passed  before  the  eyes  of  simple  people  seeking 
their  confidence  and  loyalty.  The  church  alone  was 
strong  enough  to  vie  with  the  courthouse  in  human 
interest.  It  was  the  chief  architectural  glory  of 
straggling  villages,  standing  generally  upon  some 
eminence  and  dominating  a  hollow  square  of  lesser 
structures  devoted  to  trade.  It  is  interesting  and 
significant  to  note  that  a  more  practical  and  far- 
seeing  generation  is  now  substituting  the  schoolhouse 
for  the  courthouse  as  the  center  and  pivot  of  commu- 
nity life.  The  transfer  of  interest  from  the  one  to 
the  other  in  the  public  mind  denotes  a  profound 
change  in  the  popular  conception  of  the  meaning  of 
politics.  Politics  is  now  coming  to  mean  a  practical 
program  of  growth  and  training,  through  which  the 
fittest  and  best  of  all  the  young  life  about  can  be 
made  ready  for  leadership.  This  attitude  places  the 
emphasis  on  the  child  who  may  be  made  great,  rather 
than  on  the  adult  claimant  of  greatness,  and  marks 
a  distinct  advance  in  social  understanding. 

Conspicuous  among  the  great  figures  of  young 
Curry's  Temple  of  Justice  was  the  presiding  judge 
of  the  circuit  of  the  period  of  his  charcoal  sketch, 
William  H.  Crawford,  later  a  man  of  national  fame 
and  a  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  1824;  Garnett 
Andrews,  who  had  a  local  and  state  reputation  as  a 
lawyer  and  jurist;  Judge  Joseph  H.  Lumpkin,  after- 
wards Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Georgia, 


"  THE   DARK   CORNER  ''  21 

and  in  his  day  one  of  the  most  eminent  and  successful 
lawyers  at  the  Georgia  bar;  Andrew  Miller,  for  many 
years  president  of  the  State  Senate,  a  lawyer  and 
politician  of  distinction;  and  Robert  Toombs,  then 
a  young  man,  and  afterwards  a  figure  of  conspicuous 
distinction  in  the  history  of  the  nation. 

The  next  year  young  Curry  was  sent  to  school  in 
Willington,  across  the  Savannah  River,  in  Abbeville 
County,  South  Carolina,  whither  his  brother  Jackson 
and  David  Remsen  had  preceded  him  the  year  be- 
fore. The  school  at  Willington  was  famous  in  its 
day.  Founded  in  the  first  decade  of  the  19th  century 
by  the  Reverend  Moses  Waddell,  it  was  among  the 
most  noted  of  the  earlier  ante-bellum  academies; 
and  Waddell  himself  was  in  the  forefront  of  the 
schoolmasters  of  his  generation.  It  has  been  said 
of  the  school  at  Willington  that  ''it  was  in  the  coun- 
try, far  from  town;  the  life  was  simple  and  discipline 
was  strict;  the  hardest  work  was  required  of  all 
students."  Among  Dr.  Waddell's  pupils  at  various 
times  were  his  famous  brother-in-law,  John  Caldwell 
Calhoun;  George  McDuffie,  "the  orator  of  Nullifi- 
cation;" Judge  Longstreet,  of  ''Georgia  Scenes" 
fame;  James  Bowie,  soldier  and  adventurer,  who 
invented  the  deadly  knife  of  the  southwestern  coun- 
try that  is  called  after  him,  and  who  died  with 
Crockett  and  Travis  and  their  fellows  in  the  defense 
of  the  Alamo;  James  Lewis  Petigru,  defender  of  the 
Union  in  the  days  of  South  Carolina  nullification, 
attorney  general  of  the  state  and  codifier  of  its  laws; 
and  of  a  number  of  others  whose  names  are  scarcely 
less  distinguished  and  well-remembered. 

At  the  time  of  Curry's  attendance  on  the  school 
at  Willington,  it  was  directed  and  taught  by  the  sons 


22       J.  L.  M,  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

of  the  elder  Waddell,  James  P.  and  John  N.  Waddell. 
There  were  about  a  hundred  boys,  many  of  whom 
boarded  at  private  houses  in  the  tiny  village,  and 
with  the  neighboring  farmers.  Young  Curry's  host 
was  a  Dr.  Harris,  who  gave  his  company  biscuits 
every  Sunday  morning,  and  cornbread  in  its  various 
shapes  on  other  days  and  times.  The  pupils  gath- 
ered at  Willington  from  many  directions  in  the  sur- 
rounding districts  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina; 
and  among  other  contemporaries  there  of  the  two 
young  Currys  were  W.  W.  Boyce,  who  was  later  a 
member  of  Congress  from  South  Carolina;  Gen. 
Milledge  L.  Bonham,  also  a  member  of  Congress, 
and  later  Governor  of  South  Carolina;  and  others 
of  more  or  less  local  or  sectional  distinction. 

The  WiUington  Academy,  which  had  been  first 
established  by  Dr.  Waddell  at  Vienna,  in  Carolina,  a 
short  distance  from  its  subsequent  site,  has  been 
described  by  one  who  was  famiUar  with  it,  as  having 
become  famous  all  over  the  South.  Says  this 
writer : 

After  Dr.  Waddell  was  forced  from  age  and  dis- 
ability, to  give  up  teaching,  the  school  was  revived  by 
his  sons,  James  and  John  Waddell,  but  under  the  gen- 
eral supervision  of  the  old  schoolmaster.  No  doubt  his 
sons  followed  their  father's  plan  of  teaching,  and  as  I 
was,  when  a  boy,  long  an  inmate  of  Moses  Waddell's 
family,  and  a  pupil  at  the  Willington  Academy,  it  may 
not  be  unentertaining  to  give  a  short  account  of  the  old 
Willington  schoolhouse,  as  we  had  it  from  tradition.  The 
boys  boarded  at  farmhouses  in  the  neighborhood  or  lived 
in  log  huts  in  the  woods  near  the  Academy,  furnishing 
their  own  supplies.  At  sunrise  Dr.  Waddell  was  wont  to 
wind   his   horn,    which    was   immediately   answered   by 


"  THE   DARK   CORNER  '»  23 

horns  in  all  directions.  At  an  early  hour  the  pupils 
made  their  appearance  at  the  log  cabin  schoolhouse. 
The  Doctor,  entering  the  cabin  and  depositing  his  hat, 
would  reappear  at  the  door  with  this  school  horn  in  his 
hand.  He  then  would  call  out  loud,  "What  boy  feels 
most  flatulent  this  morning?" 

After  the  horn  had  been  sounded  by  some  lucky 
youth,  the  school-boys  came  in  to  listen  to  a  short 
set  form  of  prayer. 

After  prayers  the  pupils,  each  with  a  chair  bearing  his 
name  sculped  in  the  back  of  it,  retired  to  the  woods  for 
study,  the  classes  being  divided  into  squads  according  to 
individual  preference.  In  the  spring  and  summer  months 
these  squads  scattered  through  the  oak  and  hickory  woods 
in  quest  of  shade;  but  in  cold  weather  the  first  thing  done 
by  them  was  to  kindle  log-heap  fires.  Whosoever  im- 
agines that  the  boys  did  not  study  as  well  as  they  would 
have  done  under  the  immediate  eye  of  the  teacher  is  mis- 
taken. I  have  been  to  many  schools  conducted  according 
to  various  systems  of  education,  but  nowhere  have  I  seen 
such  assiduity  in  study,  nowhere  have  I  ever  witnessed 
such  emulation  to  excel.  It  was  a  classical  school.  The 
multiplicity  of  studies  now  advertised  at  fashionable  acad- 
emies was  unknown  in  those  early  times.  The  debating 
club  on  Friday  afternoons  was  an  important  institution, 
and  regarded  by  the  teacher  as  a  very  necessary  part  of  his 
scholastic  system,  for  to  converse  and  speak  in  public  were 
esteemed  necessary  accomplishments  to  Southern  youths. 

Of  the  famous  schoolmaster,  whose  sons  succeeded 
him  in  the  school  where  the  methods  of  their  father's 
system  were  still  continued  in  Curry's  day  at  Willing- 
ton,  Mr.  Calhoun  long  afterwards  wrote  as  follows : — 

In  that  character  (as  a  teacher)  he  stands  almost  un- 
rivaled.    He  may  be  justly  considered  as  the  father  of 


24       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

classical  education  in  the  upper  country  of  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia.  His  excellence  in  that  character  depended 
not  so  much  on  extensive  or  profound  learning  as  a  felici- 
tous combination  of  qualities  for  the  government  of  boys 
and  communicating  to  them  what  he  knew.  He  was  par- 
ticularly successful  in  exciting  emulation  amongst  them, 
and  in  obtaining  the  good  will  of  all  except  the  worthless. 
The  best  evidence  of  his  high  qualities  as  a  teacher  is  his 
success.  Among  his  pupils  are  to  be  found  a  large  portion 
of  the  eminent  men  in  this  state  and  Georgia.  In  this  state 
it  is  sufficient  to  name  McDuffie,  Legare,  Petigru,  and  my 
colleague,  Butler.  To  these  many  others  of  distinction 
might  be  added.  His  pupils  in  Georgia  who  have  distin- 
guished themselves  are  numerous.  In  the  list  are  to  be 
found  the  names  of  William  H.  Crawford,  Longstreet,  etc. 
It  is  in  his  character  of  a  teacher,  especially,  that  he  will 
long  be  remembered  as  a  benefactor  of  the  country. 

During  the  year  of  Curry's  stay  at  Willington  an 
event  of  great  importance  in  the  eyes  of  the  pupils 
was  the  visit  to  the  school  of  the  famous  Siamese 
twdns,  Chang  and  Eng,  who  were  then  making  their 
first  tour  in  America.  He  makes  record  among  his 
memoranda  of  seeing  the  twins  at  Willington.  They 
seemed,  he  says,  to  be  about  seventeen  years  old; 
and  cheerful  and  very  agile. 

"Cherry  Hill,"  the  home  of  George  McDuffie,  was 
near  the  Willington  Academy;  and  was  a  favorite 
resort  of  the  boys  on  Saturdays.  McDuffie's  dis- 
tinguished career  in  the  United  States  House  of 
Representatives  ended  during  the  year  of  Curry's 
pupilage  at  Willington ;  and  in  the  same  year  he  was 
elected  Governor  of  South  Carolina.  In  1842  he 
was  chosen  to  the  Senate,  and  was  in  the  forefront 
of  the  forensic  and  political  debates  and  contests  of 
the  period  in  that  body. 


"  THE   DARK    CORNER  "  25 

It  remains  to  be  added,  in  connection  with  Curry's 
life  at  Willington,  that  both  the  sons  of  Moses 
Waddell,  James  Pleasants  Waddell  and  John  Newton 
Waddell,  became  eminent  in  their  chosen  profession 
as  educators, — the  former  filling  with  success  and 
distinction  the  chairs  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Georgia,  where  Curry  records  of  him  that 
he  treated  his  old  pupil  with  a  fatherly  care  and  kind- 
ness during  the  latter' s  career  as  a  student;  while 
John  Newton  Waddell  became  professor  of  Latin 
and  Greek  in  the  University  of  Mississippi,  and  later 
its  Chancellor. 

During  the  next  succeeding  year,  and  for  the  two 
years  following,  from  1835  to  1838,  young  Curry 
and  his  brothers  were  kept  at  home,  and  attended  a 
school  nearby  at  ''Double  Branches."  The  teacher, 
Daniel  W.  Finn,  was  an  Irishman,  and  a  graduate  of 
Dublin  University,  where  he  had  studied  for  the 
Roman  Catholic  priesthood.  With  such  educational 
opportunities,  Mr.  Finn  had  made  of  himself  a  most 
excellent  scholar;  and  he  was  highly  proficient  and 
accomplished,  especially  in  the  ancient  languages. 
He  was  moreover  a  very  popular  and  successful 
teacher;  and  it  doubtless  goes  without  saying  that 
Curry,  who  was  fond  of  books  and  usually  an  apt 
and  industrious  student,  made  satisfactory  progress 
under  the  Irishman  in  the  branches  of  Latin,  Greek, 
Algebra  and  Geometry,  in  all  of  which  the  master 
instructed  his  pupil. 

"Double  Branches,"  in  the  southern  part  of  Lin- 
coln County,  was  the  site  of  a  Baptist  Church;  and 
it  is  eminently  characteristic  of  what  might  be  called 
the  "cosmopolitan"  liberality  of  thought  and 
breadth  of  view  of  the  population  of  the  period,  had 


26       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

they  known  aught  of  cities,  that  they  not  only  sent 
their  children  to  school  to  a  Roman  Catholic,  but 
that  they  permitted  a  mulatto  preacher  to  fill  oc- 
casionally the  pulpit  of  the  '' Double  Branches" 
Baptist  Church.  This  man's  name  was  Adams; 
and  Curry  records  of  him  that  he  preached  to  the 
satisfaction  of  all,  both  white  and  colored,  and  adds: 
"For  a  colored  man  to  preach  to  white  congregations 
was  not  an  offence." 

William  Curry  at  this  time  was  a  farmer  and  coun- 
try merchant.  His  store  drew  custom  from  a  wide 
circle;  and  both  musters  and  elections  were  held  in 
its  immediate  vicinity.  Politics  ran  high  in  those 
days,  in  Lincoln  County  as  elsewhere;  and  carried 
inevitably  in  their  train  frequent  excitement  and  ill- 
feeling.  But  the  Lincoln  County  folks  took  their 
politics,  as  they  did  the  other  happenings  of  Ufe, 
with  a  philosophic  good  humor  which  did  not  suffer 
the  sun  to  go  down  on  their  political  wrath;  and  the 
asperities  of  election  day  generally  disappeared  in 
the  emulation  of  the  quarter-races,  which  almost 
invariably  succeeded  the  polling,  the  electors  riding, 
in  competition,  quick  heats  on  the  nags  that  had 
brought  them  to  the  store  for  the  purpose  of  voting. 

In  the  country  sports,  common  to  boys  and  men, 
young  Jabez  Curry  took  his  hearty  share.  The 
hunting  of  the  opossum  and  the  'coon,  an  immemorial 
pastime  and  delight  with  many  generations  of 
Southern  boys  and  their  darkey  friends  and  play- 
mates, and  embalmed  in  the  melody  and  pathos  of 
more  than  one  plantation  song,  was  a  favorite  pur- 
suit with  Jabez.  ''Very  often,"  he  says,  "have  I, 
with  other  boys  and  some  of  my  father's  negroes, 
hunted  for  half  the  night.     It  was  a  boyish  ambition, 


<  i 


THE   DARK   CORNER '»  27 


too,  to  be  out  all  night.  The  skill  of  the  negroes  in 
finding  their  way  in  the  woods  by  starlight  used  to 
excite  my  boyish  admiration." 

It  was  such  association  as  this  with  the  young 
people  of  the  slave  population  that  gave  their  white 
owners  so  strong  a  hold  upon  the  natural  affections 
of  the  negroes;  and  no  one  can  fully  realize  and 
appreciate  the  reciprocal  feelings  of  kindliness  and 
regard  that  held  the  two  races  of  that  period  so 
strongly  together,  who  has  never  been  'possum  or 
'coon  hunting  on  a  Southern  plantation  at  night, 
with  a  company  of  dusky  negro  playmates! 

Hunting  birds,  too,  in  the  brush  heaps  of  the  ''new 
grounds,"  where  the  virgin  forests  had  fallen  before 
the  axe,  and  the  logs  had  been  piled  up  to  be  removed 
or  burnt,  was  also  an  exciting  sport,  with  its  ac- 
companiment of  flashing  pine  torches  and  whistling 
dogwood  branches;  but  the  helplessness  of  the 
victims,  and  their  easy  capture  or  destruction  when 
blinded  by  the  torchlight,  and  stricken  down  by  the 
switches,  gave  it  a  cruel  aspect  to  young  Curry,  who 
preferred  other  and  less  easy  pursuits.  A  rabbit- 
hunt  was  a  good  thing,  for  bunny  had  a  chance  to 
get  away;  and  fishing  with  hook  and  line  in  river 
and  creek,  or  hauling  the  seine  in  the  mill-ponds, 
offered  many  opportunities  of  enjoyment  to  the 
growing  lad.  "I  well  remember,"  he  declared  in 
after  years,  with  the  vivid  recollection  in  which 
childhood  often  preserves  its  simplest  memories — 
"I  well  remember  the  first  fish — a  little  minnow — 
I  ever  caught;  and  Napoleon  was  not  prouder  of 
one  of  his  great  victories  than  I  was  of  my  piscatory 


success." 


It  is  a  characteristic  of  the  negro  race,  familiar  to 


28       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

those  who  have  associated  with  them  in  more  than 
one  of  the  Southern  States,  that  the  farther  south 
they  Hve,  and  the  nearer  to  the  equator,  the  more 
amenable  they  appear  to  the  impressions  of  super- 
stition. Superstitious  under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, the  negro  of  the  far  south  is  voodooistic 
and  "conjur-man"  to  an  extreme  degree;  and 
James  Whitcomb  Riley's  lines  convey  no  inapt  de- 
scription of  him  amid  his  surroundings: — 

Amid  lush  fens  of  rice, 

I  beheld  the  negro's  eyes 
Lit  with  that  old  superstition  time  itself  cannot  disguise; 

And  I  saw  the  palm-tree  nod 

Like  an  oriental  god. 
And  the  cotton  froth  and  bubble  at  the  pod. 

There  were  no  palm  trees  nor  rice  in  the  part  of 
Georgia  where  Jabez  Curry  grew  up  as  a  child;  but 
the  negro  was  there  with  his  immemorial  self-delu- 
sions and  gross  beliefs.  Curry  has  left  a  grave 
record  of  the  evil  results  which  this  strange  quality 
of  the  African  mind  made  upon  his  own  in  early 
childhood — an  experience  that  was  common  to  very 
many  of  the  sensitive  and  imaginative  white  children 
of  the  South: — 

"The  negroes,  a  superstitious,  gullible  race,"  he  writes, 
"used  to  tell  me  most  marvellous  tales  about  ghosts, 
witches,  hobgoblins,  and  haunted  places;  and  I  had  not  a 
shadow  of  doubt  as  to  the  truth  of  their  statement.  The 
result  on  myself  was  so  painful  and  mischievous,  that  I 
made  it  an  inflexible  rule  in  training  my  children  to  deal 
frankly  with  them,  and  under  no  circumstances  to  deceive 
them." 


CHAPTER  II 


ALABAMA:    "hERE    WE    REST" 


In  the  year  1837,  Curry's  father  visited  Alabama, 
and  bought  a  tract  of  land  in  Talladega  County, 
known  as  Kelly's  Springs.  It  was  the  period  of  the 
"Flush  Times  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama,"  whose 
history  has  been  chronicled  with  the  deft  and  illumi- 
nating pen  of  Judge  Joseph  G.  Baldwin.  In  the 
public  estimation,  there  were  great  fortunes  to  be 
made  from  the  acquisition  of  lands.  "Fiat  money" 
of  the  irresponsible  state  banks,  and  the  "shin- 
plaster"  currency  of  a  wild  economic  period  in  the 
history  of  the  lower  South,  abounded  everywhere; 
and  speculation  was  rife.  WilUam  Curry  paid 
thirty-nine  dollars  per  acre  for  his  Talladega  farm; 
and  in  spite  of  the  later  fading  of  the  "Flush  Times" 
and  the  collapse  of  the  "boom"  in  land  values,  he 
presumably  never  had  cause  to  regret  his  purchase. 
In  December  of  the  same  year,  or  in  January  of  the 
next,  he  sent  his  negroes,  in  charge  of  an  overseer,  to 
Kelly's  Springs,  to  prepare  the  ground  and  put  out 
a  crop.  He  sold  the  old  home  place  in  "The  Dark 
Corner,"  and  in  May,  1838,  set  out  with  his  family 
for  his  new  home  in  Alabama.  Though  thus  parting 
finally  with  the  residence  and  family  graveyard  of 
his  people  in  Lincoln  County,  which  passed  thence- 
forward into  the  hands  of  strangers,  William  Curry 

29 


30       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

appears  to  have  retained  considerable  landed  estate 
in  Georgia,  for  he  owned  not  only  a  large  body  of 
land  in  Lincoln  County,  but  a  number  of  other  tracts 
and  lots  in  various  parts  of  the  state, — illustrating 
in  its  acquisition  and  retention  one  of  the  most 
marked  characteristics,  as  philosophic  historians  re- 
mind Us,  of  the  genuine  Anglo-Saxon,  whether  as  an 
individual,  or  in  the  aggregate  as  a  race. 

The  starting  to  Alabama  was  delayed  by  the  ex- 
treme illness  of  young  Curry's  stepmother;  and  the 
journey  was  made  by  Mrs.  Curry  in  a  carriage. 

In  1802  Georgia,  in  emulation  of  the  generous  and 
splendid  act  of  Virginia  in  ceding  to  the  United 
States  the  great  Northwest  Territory,  had  ceded  to 
the  general  government  the  region  which  became  in 
1817  the  territory  of  Alabama,  and  two  years  later 
was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  state.  The  act 
by  which  this  cession  was  made  provided  that  the 
terms  and  conditions  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787 
governing  the  Northwest  Territory  should  apply, 
except  the  provision  in  the  latter  as  to  slavery.  The 
act  of  Congress,  authorizing  the  people  of  Alabama 
to  form  a  state  government,  contained  like  provi- 
sions, and  specified  that  the  constitution  of  the  new 
state  should  be  in  accordance  with  the  Ordinance 
save  as  to  the  slavery  provision.  It  also  contained 
provision  for  certain  land  grants  dedicated  to  educa- 
tion and  internal  improvements. 

It  has  been  said  of  the  Convention  which  met  at 
Huntsville,  on  July  5,  1819,  and  continued  in  session 
until  August  2,  that  it  was  an  able  body  of  men, 
many  of  whom  had  gained  political  experience  in 
the  older  states;  and  that  "it  is  possible  to  trace  in 
the  document  which  they  drew  up  the  influence  of 


ALABAMA:   "  HEEE    WE   REST"       31 

Virginia,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  North  and  South  Car- 
olina ideas;  yet  the  document  was  not  a  slavish  one. 
It  was  a  good,  practical  constitution,  and  it  lasted 
with  several  small  amendments  down  to  the  War 
of  Secession." 

Alabama  became  one  of  the  states  of  the  American 
Union,  December  14,  1819;  so  that  its  statehood 
was  but  a  little  more  than  five  years  of  age  at  the 
date  of  Curry's  birth  in  1825.  When  he  became  its 
citizen  in  1838,  both  state  and  boy  were  young;  and 
thenceforward  they  grew  up  and  developed  together 
until  War  arose  on  the  horizon,  and  a  new  govern- 
ment claimed  and  received  the  allegiance  of  both. 

At  the  time  of  William  Curry's  migration  with  his 
family  from  Lincoln  County,  Georgia,  to  Talladega, 
Alabama,  the  new  state  was  such  a  frontier  country 
as  the  Georgia  of  a  preceding  generation  had  been. 
The  historian,  above  quoted,  says  of  it: — 

The  conquest  of  nature  absorbed  the  inhabitants  of  the 
new  state  so  fully  that  they  had  little  time  for  political 
questions ;  nor  did  these  for  some  time  press  upon  them  for 
solution.  The  new  state  began  its  career  in  the  "Era  of 
Good  Feeling,"  under  President  Monroe.  The  bitter  Mis- 
souri contest  was  contemporaneous  with  its  admission, 
and  during  the  years  of  political  quiet  that  followed,  Ala- 
bama knew  no  politics.  The  population  was  nearly  half 
slave;  but  the  conditions  were  favorable  to  slavery,  and 
there  was  little  difference  of  opinion  about  it.  Laws  were 
passed  to  regulate  the  institution,  to  prevent  cruelty  on 
the  one  hand  and  wholesale  emancipation  on  the  other,  to 
prescribe  the  status  of  free  negroes,  and  to  maintain  order 
among  the  slaves  and  the  free.  The  question  then  passed 
into  the  background,  where  it  slumbered,  with  one  or  two 
brief  interruptions,  until  it  was  called  forth  by  the  great 
discussions  that  immediately  preceded  the  War. 


32       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

The  distance  which  was  traversed  by  the  Curry 
family  in  going  from  ''The  Dark  Corner"  to  their 
new  home  at  Kelly's  Springs  was  more  than  two 
hundred  miles.  The  way  stretched  entirely  across 
the  State  of  Georgia  and  a  third  of  the  way  across 
the  State  of  Alabama.  It  was  no  slight  or  trivial 
journey,  for  the  way  was  largely  unbroken,  and  the 
means  of  locomotion  primitive.  The  cavalcade  was 
composed  of  the  white  family  in  vehicles  or  on 
horseback,  the  carriage  in  which  Mrs.  Curry  was 
transported,  various  wagons  and  horses,  the  latter 
hitched  to  the  vehicles,  or  ridden  under  saddle,  and 
numerous  negro  household  servants.  A  necessary 
part  of  its  equipment  was  a  sufficient  supply  of  tents, 
for  there  was  neither  inn  nor  hostelry  for  the  accom- 
modation of  man  or  beast.  But  the  May  weather 
was  mild  and  balmy;  and  camping-out  under  a 
cloudless  heaven,  beneath  the  overhanging  stars, 
afforded  the  lad  a  new  joy,  the  memory  of  which 
lasted  through  his  life.  The  wolves,  attracted  by 
the  camp-fires  which  the  servants  built  at  night,  ap- 
proached the  camp,  and  protested  against  the  in- 
vasion of  their  territory  with  doleful  howls;  but  the 
fears  which  they  aroused  in  the  minds  of  the  youthful 
members  of  the  party  were  accompanied  by  such  a 
sense  of  excitement  and  interest  as  to  make  them 
not  unwelcome.  At  a  point  where  the  little  caval- 
cade crossed  the  Georgia  line  into  what  is  now 
Cleburne  County,  Alabama,  young  Curry  got  his 
first  sight  of  the  mountains.  Though  they  were 
neither  lofty  nor  commanding,  they  presented  to 
his  view  a  novel  and  unexperienced  landscape;  and 
in  traversing  them  he  examined  with  keen  interest 
the  grasses,  shrubs  and  ferns  with  which  they  were 


ALABAMA:   ''HERE   WE   REST"       33 

covered.  A  long  familiarity  in  after  years  with  the 
mountains  of  his  native  country,  and  with  the 
Pyrenees,  the  Alps  and  the  Apennines  of  the  old 
world,  never  obliterated  from  his  memory  that  early 
impression  of  the  low  mountains  of  the  Georgian 
border. 

"It  was  a  sad  exodus,"  he  wrote,  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury later,  in  allusion  to  a  visit  some  years  before  to  the 
old  place  in  Lincoln  County,  "leaving  the  old  homestead, 
where  grandparents  and  mother  lay  buried.  Many  years 
afterwards  I  revisited  my  birthplace,  but  what  a  change! 
When  my  father  emigrated,  he  left  a  mansion,  all  needful 
outhouses,  a  grove  of  beautiful  oaks,  a  fertilized  vegetable 
garden,  a  yard  glowing  with  roses  and  rare  flowers,  well- 
bearing  orchards  of  selected  fruits,  a  plantation  well- 
fenced  and  intersected  by  roads,  and  everything  that  char- 
acterized a  well-to-do  Southern  home.  •  Forty-six  years  had 
wrought  a  marvellous  transformation.  Nearly  everything 
on  the  surface  had  disappeared,  except  the  dwelling-house, 
and  that  was  in  a  dilapidated  condition.  The  cultivated 
fields  had  been  neglected  and  permitted  to  grow  up  in 
broom  sedge  and  sassafras  and  persimmon  and  pine. 
Desolation  reigned  supreme.  I  came  away  sick  at  heart, 
regretting  that  I  had  made  the  visit,  for  all  the  cherished 
pictures  of  childhood's  life  were  dispelled,  and  there  only 
remained  the  saddest  impression  of  what  neglect  and  pov- 
erty and  bad  tillage  had  wrought." 

The  new  home  in  Talladega  County  was  reached 
May  29,  1838,  and  the  new  life  begun.  The  negroes, 
who  had  come  on  before  the  family,  had  been  in- 
dustriously at  work,  and  had  done  their  work  well. 
The  new  lands  had  responded  to  the  efforts  of  their 
cultivators;  the  corn,  that  had  been  planted  in  the 
early  spring,  was  already  waist-high;   and  nature's 


34       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

lavish  gifts  were  everywhere  in  evidence.  The 
woods  were  covered  with  verdant  and  luxuriant 
foliage;  grapes  hung  from  the  branches  of  trailing 
vines,  and  wild  flowers  blossomed  in  wood  and  wold. 
The  water  in  the  streams,  flowing  amid  limestone 
rocks,  was  clear  as  crystal;  and  the  whole  new 
country  seemed  to  the  impressionable  boy  the  most 
beautiful  he  had  ever  imagined. 

The  newcomers  found  that  the  dwelling  house  was 
not  completed.  It  was  a  two-story  building  of 
ample  proportions,  yet  in  its  unfinished  state  it  af- 
forded only  scanty  shelter.  But  the  season  was 
mild,  and  the  tents  that  had  been  pitched  by  the 
wayside  were  not  without  their  uses  at  the  goal. 
The  kindly  welcome  which  the  negro  slaves  gave  the 
newcomers  made  no  little  amends  for  many  tem- 
porary discomforts.  They  were  at  work  in  the  fields 
by  the  roadside  as  the  cavalcade  from  Georgia  ap- 
proached; and  throwing  down  their  hoes,  they 
rushed  to  meet  their  master's  family  with  the  joyous 
and  noisy  greeting  of  a  careless  race. 

The  nomenclature  of  places  is  often  as  interesting 
and  as  significant  as  that  of  peoples  and  individuals; 
and  not  infrequently  establishes  historical  landmarks 
that  ought  not  to  be  changed  or  removed.  Contact 
with  the  Indians,  of  which  the  new  state  had  up  to 
very  recent  times  been  full,  had  impressed  the  in- 
coming white  settlers  with  the  frequent  appositeness 
and  significance  of  the  Indian  names;  and  many  of 
them  were  retained  for  the  places  and  localities  to 
which  they  had  become  attached.  "Alabama"  it- 
self meant  "Here  we  rest;"  and  was  no  inappropriate 
appellation  for  the  new  region  in  the  eyes  of  the  in- 
comers.    "Talladega"  meant  "Border  Town;  "  and 


ALABAMA:   "HERE   WE   REST"       35 

the  white  settlers  retained  it.  It  was  a  fertile  spot, 
this  Talladega  Valley,  constituting  the  eastern  part 
of  the  great  Coosa  Valley;  and  a  land  that  lent  itself 
rather  to  the  cultivation  of  the  cereals  than  of  cotton. 
It  had  been  the  country  of  the  Muscogee  Indians, 
later  better  known  as  Creeks.  The  Creek  Indians 
in  the  War  of  1812,  as  the  Five  Nations  in  the  North 
during  the  Revolution,  had  espoused  the  cause  of 
the  invading  British  against  the  local  white  man. 
These  Creeks  had  committed  the  atrocious  massacre 
at  Fort  Mims;  and  it  was  not  until  General  Andrew 
Jackson  had  vanquished  them  in  the  battle  of  the 
Horseshoe  Bend,  and  finally  by  treaty  restricted 
them  to  the  Coosa  Valley  section,  that  they  had 
been  under  control.  When  William  Curry's  family 
arrived  at  Kelly's  Springs,  in  Talladega  County,  in 
1838,  the  Indians  had  for  the  most  part  passed  out 
of  Alabama,  Cherokees,  Chickasaws  and  Choctaws 
going  first;  and  the  warlike  Creeks  only  departing 
at  last,  after  a  last  stand  and  struggle  at  Pea  Ridge 
in  the  preceding  year. 

Though  most  of  the  Indians  had  long  since  de- 
parted from  Alabama,  and  had  crossed  over  into  the 
country  west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  a  few  contin- 
ued to  stay  in  their  old  country,  earning  a  precarious 
subsistence  by  hunting,  fishing  and  begging.  Sev- 
eral of  them  were  at  the  new  home  at  Kelly's  Springs 
when  the  Currys  arrived ;  and  Curry  records  of  them 
that  they  were  for  a  long  time  thereafter  to  be  seen 
at  the  place  nearly  every  day.  They  were  poor  and 
harmless  and  friendless;  and  he  became  quite  fond 
of  them,  and  soon  learned  to  speak  their  language 
so  as  to  converse  with  them  in  it.  But  he  writes 
regretfully  that  their  general  worthlessness  soon  dis- 


36       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

illusioned  him  of  the  romance  with  which  Cooper  in 
his  "Leather  Stocking  Tales"  had  invested  the  figure 
of  the  red  man. 

Yet  in  spite  of  their  later  degradation,  these  Ala- 
bama Indians  had  not  been  without  the  marks  of  a 
social  and  economic  existence  that  seemed  to  lift 
them  above  the  status  of  simple  barbarism.  A 
recent  writer  on  the  iron  and  coal  industries  of  this 
section  of  Alabama  says: — 

There  is  a  tradition  to  the  effect  that  a  tribe  of  Indians 
called  the  UUabees,  corrupted  by  the  whites  into  Hilla- 
bees,  occupied  the  mountainous  district  along  Talladega 
Creek,  extending  into  the  present  County  of  Clay,  and  that 
these  Ullabees  had  iron  arrow  heads,  and  various  rude  im- 
plements made  of  iron  when  the  first  settlers  penetrated 
the  wilds,  and  traded  with  the  Ullabee  clan  of  the  Musco- 
gee Indians. 

Much  of  the  land  in  this  Creek  country  belonged 
to  the  United  States  government,  and  was  now  put 
on  the  market.  The  Federal  Land  Office  was  at 
Mardisville,  near  the  centre  of  Talladega  County. 
The  several  government  tracts  had  been  surveyed 
and  laid  off  into  sections  of  six  hundred  and  forty 
acres  each,  and  these  into  subdivisions  of  forty  acres 
each.  This  "forty  acres"  subdivision  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  origin  of  the  limitation  upon  the 
expectancy  of  the  Southern  negro  ex-slave  in  the 
matter  of  land  in  the  period  immediately  succeed- 
ing the  collapse  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  The 
concomitant  mule  was  a  suggestion  original  to  the 
reconstruction  period. 

Under  the  Federal  statutes,  this  public  land  was 
subject  to  entry,  with  restrictions,  on  the  payment 


ALABAMA:   "HERE   WE    REST"       37 

of  a  fixed  price,  at  the  Mardisville  Land  Office.  The 
government,  however,  would  accept  no  money  in 
payment  but  gold  and  silver.  The  paper  money  of 
the  period  was  without  provision  for  redemption, 
and  was  greatly  depreciated.  Much  extortion  was 
practised  by  the  money  changers  in  the  conversion 
of  ''shinplasters"  into  specie,  since  speculation  in 
lands  had  become  long  since  in  the  southwest  a 
species  of  mania.  The  strange  passion  for  town- 
building  under  conditions  known  as  ''boom,"  which 
has  characterized  so  many  sections  and  localities  of 
the  North  American  continent  at  various  periods  in 
its  history,  had  twenty  years  earlier  seized  upon  the 
then  Territory  of  Alabama. 

"Now  that  the  heart  of  the  river  basin  from  the  Ten- 
nessee Valley  to  the  Florida  line  was  open  to  white  settle- 
ment," writes  the  historian,  "immigration  came  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  The  Whitney  gin  made  cotton-raising  the 
money-making  industry,  and  planters  took  up  much  of  the 
Black  Belt.  Town-making  became  the  rage.  Not  only 
was  Blakely  founded  across  the  delta  as  a  rival  to  Mobile, 
and  even  St.  Stephens  had  neighbors,  but  Wetumpka, 
Montgomery,  Selma,  and  Tuscaloosa  were  laid  out,  be- 
sides others  which  were  to  live  only  on  paper.  The  steam- 
boat had  come  on  the  Mississippi.  It  was  clear  that  in  a 
short  time  it  must  solve  the  transportation  question,  and 
make  of  the  river  basin  an  agricultural  commonwealth. 
The  old  times  when  the  port  which  looked  abroad  was  the 
only  place  of  interest,  had  passed.  Local  centres  were  de- 
veloped over  the  eastern  half  of  Mississippi  territory,  and 
the  commerce  through  Mobile  vastly  increased. 

"The  western  half,  with  Mississippi  River  as  its  promo- 
ter, had  increased  even  more  rapidly,  and  in  1817  was 
erected  into  the  State  of  Mississippi.  The  counties  left 
outside  became  the  territory  of  Alabama,  whose  legisla- 

443282 


38       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

ture  met  at  St.  Stephens  as  the  first  capitol;  but,  in  two 
years  the  sentiment  steadily  grew  that  this  new  territory 
also  was  ripe  for  statehood." 

The  main  public  thoroughfare  of  the  county  of 
Talladega  passed  in  front  of  the  door  of  the  Curry 
homestead  at  Kelly's  Springs,  which  was  situated 
six  miles  east  of  Talladega,  and  eleven  miles  north- 
east of  Mardisville.  ''Every  hour  in  the  day  and 
often  through  the  night,"  writes  Curry,  ''a  stream 
of  people  would  be  passing  to  and  from  the  land 
office.  All  traveled  on  horseback,  as  the  country 
was  new,  very  sparsely  settled,  and  the  roads  were 
few  and  very  bad.  Every  traveler  had  his  saddle- 
bags for  carrying  'the  specie'  as  it  was  called.  Hun- 
dreds of  these  land-buyers  stopped  with  my  father. 
There  were  no  inns  or  public  houses;  and  unpleasant 
as  it  was  to  entertain  them,  it  was  a  necessity.  The 
immigration  for  a  few  years  to  this  part  of  Alabama 
was  very  large.  The  settlers  were  mainly  from 
Tennessee,  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  but  not  a 
few  were  from  North  Carolina  and  Virginia,  with  a 
'sprinkling'  from  New  England." 

The  early  settlers  of  Alabama  came  from  many 
directions.  The  valley  of  the  Tennessee  River,  in 
Northern  Alabama,  was  settled  for  the  most  part  by 
Tennesseeans,  and  through  Tennessee,  by  Virginians. 
The  Georgians  came  down  the  Coosa  Valley,  and  back 
of  them  the  North  and  South  Carolinians  filled  the 
central  section;  while  the  southern  part  of  the  state 
was  populated  by  settlers  from  every  direction. 
From  the  Northern  States  came  several  thousand 
New  England  business  men. 

One  colony,  consisting  of  French  exiles,  who  had  fol- 
lowed the  fortunes  of  Napoleon  until  his  downfall,  founded 


ALABAMA:   ''HERE   WE   REST"       39 

on  the  Tombigbie  River,  a  town  which  they  called  Demop- 
olis,  in  what  later  became  Marengo  County. 

This  heterogeneous  people  had,  as  well  might  be 
expected,  the  characteristic  virtues  and  vices  of 
frontier  settlers.  They  exercised  a  ready  and  gen- 
erous hospitality,  a  neighborly  kindness,  and  an 
unfailing  and  invincible  self-reliance.  They  en- 
couraged the  propagation  of  religion;  and  Baptists, 
Methodists,  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians 
established  their  churches  and  flourished  in  greater 
or  less  degree  from  the  beginning  of  the  earlier  settle- 
ments. The  eccentric  Lorenzo  Dow,  whose  intro- 
duction of  camp-meetings  into  England  had  resulted 
in  primitive  Methodism  there,  and  who  is  said  to 
have  preached  to  more  persons  than  any  man  of  his 
time,  had  been  the  first  minister  on  the  Tombigbie 
River  as  far  back  as  1803.  The  Alabama  settlers 
brought  with  them,  too,  the  knowledge  and  practice 
of  political  and  civil  institutions;  but  withal,  they 
had  the  recklessness  of  the  frontiersman,  and  were 
quick  to  resort  to  weapons  to  avenge  wrong  or  insult. 

A  recent  historian  has  declared  that 

the  Virginians  were  the  least  practical  of  the  settlers  and 
the  Georgians  the  most  so,  while  the  North  Carolinians 
were  a  happy  medium.  The  Georgians  were  noted  for 
their  stubborn  persistence,  and  they  usually  succeeded 
in  whatever  they  undertook.  The  Virginians  liked  a 
leisurely  planter's  life  with  abundant  social  pleasures. 
The  Tennesseeans  and  Kentuckians  were  hardly  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  Virginians  and  Carolinians,  to 
whom  they  were  closely  related.  The  northern  profes- 
sional and  business  men  exercised  an  influence  more  than 
commensurate  with  their  numbers,  being,  in  a  way,  picked 
men.     Neither  the  Georgians  nor  the  Virginians  were 


40       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

assertive  office-seekers,  but  the  Carolinians  liked  to  hold 
office,  and  the  politics  of  the  state  were  moulded  by  the 
South  Carolinians  and  Georgians.  All  were  naturally- 
inclined  to  favor  a  weak  federal  administration  and  a 
strong  state  government  with  much  liberty  of  the  indi- 
vidual. The  theories  of  Patrick  Henry,  Jefferson,  and 
Calhoun,  not  those  of  Washington  and  John  Marshall, 
formed  the  political  creed  of  the  Alabamians. 

At  the  time  of  William  Curry's  settlement  in 
Talladega,  cotton  was  the  chief  agricultural  product. 
The  town  of  Wetumpka,  seventy  miles  to  the  south 
on  the  Coosa  River,  was  the  market  town  for  the 
cotton  crops  of  the  section.  Wagons  drawn  by  oxen 
or  mules  or  horses  carried  down  the  cotton  over 
rough  roads,  and  fetched  back  sugar,  salt,  coffee, 
iron,  rope  and  bagging,  or  merchandise  for  the  stores. 
Curry,  as  a  boy,  used  to  go  with  his  father's  wagons 
occasionally,  and  would  sometimes  be  thus  absent 
from  home  for  eight  or  ten  days  at  a  time.  There 
was  so  much  hauling  over  them,  that  the  few  roads, 
poor  always  at  their  best,  would  periodically  become 
almost  impassable.  Some  wag  is  said  to  have  posted 
up,  in  these  early  days,  a  bulletin  by  the  side  of  one 
of  the  Alabama  quagmire  roads,  to  the  following 
efTect : — 

This  road  is  not  passable, — 

Not  even  jackassable. 

So  when  you  travel, 

Take  your  own  gravel. 

The  cost  of  transporting  the  cotton  crop  to  market 
interfered  very  largely  with  the  profits  of  planting. 
Sometimes  boats  were  built,  and,  loaded  with  cotton, 
were  floated  down  the  rivers  in  the  freshets,  as  log- 
gers in  a  lumber  country  float  their  logs  down  stream. 


ALABAMA:   *'  HERE   WE   REST  "       41 

William  Curry  continued  to  conduct  in  Alabama, 
as  he  had  done  in  Georgia,  a  country  store  as  an 
adjunct  to  the  raising  of  crops  on  the  plantation. 
In  a  country  where  the  monetary  circulating  me- 
dium, poor  and  depreciated  as  it  was,  was  insufficient 
in  quantity,  business  was  conducted  largely  upon 
ledger  credits.  The  country  storekeeper  sold  his 
neighbors  and  customers  the  supplies  of  various 
kinds  which  his  wagons  brought  up  from  Wetumpka 
over  the  bottomless  roads,  and  ''charged"  them  in 
personal  accounts  upon  his  books.  As  an  inevitable 
consequence  many  of  these  accounts  were  never 
paid;  and  William  Curry's  indulgence  of  his  debtors, 
during  a  long  period  of  conducting  the  business  of 
a  country  merchant,  resulted  in  the  loss  to  him  of 
many  thousands  of  dollars. 

As  was  frequently  the  case,  the  United  States 
Post-office  was  located  at  the  country  store;  and 
young  Jabez  assisted  his  father,  who  was  postmaster 
at  Kelly's  Springs,  in  handling  the  mails,  and  in  con- 
ducting the  business  of  the  office  with  the  Depart- 
ment at  Washington.  The  day  of  uniform  postal 
rates  and  postage  stamps  had  not  yet  arrived. 
Envelopes  were  little  known.  The  writer  of  a  letter 
was  taught,  when  a  pupil  at  the  ''old  field  school," 
the  art  of  folding  and  sealing  it  so  as  to  leave  proper 
outside  space  for  the  address,  with  the  same  assiduity 
as  that  with  which  he  was  instructed  in  the  art  of 
making  the  quill  pen  with  which  the  epistle  was  in- 
dited. The  introduction  of  the  now  universally 
used  envelope,  with  its  accompanying  mucilage, 
made  adhesive  by  the  moisture  of  the  tongue,  was 
greatly  deprecated  by  the  letter  writers  of  this 
earlier  period;  and  it  is  recorded  of  John  Randolph 


42       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

of  Roanoke  that,  upon  the  receipt  of  a.  letter  in  such 
a  covering,  he  inveighed  bitterly  against  his  corre- 
spondent for  "sending  him  his  spittle."  The  period 
of  the  post-office  in  the  country  store  at  Kelly's 
Springs  "was,"  writes  Curry  in  later  years,  "before 
the  days  of  penny  postage,  and  letters  were  charged 
six  and  a  quarter,  twelve  and  a  half,  eighteen  and 
three  quarters,  twenty-five,  and  thirty-seven  and  a 
half  cents,  according  to  weight  or  distance  carried. 
Prepajonent  was  not  compulsory." 

Preachers  in  Talladega  in  those  days,  records 
Curry,  "were  not  too  numerous."  There  were  only 
three  Presbyterian  ministers  in  the  county.  These 
were  Messrs.  Cater,  Chapman,  and  McAlpine,  names 
unknown  to  fame,  but  all  doubtless  faithful  servants 
and  laborers  in  a  vineyard  where  the  harvest  must 
have  offered  abundant  opportunity  of  service  and 
accomplishment. 

"Baptists  and  Methodists,"  says  Curry,  "as  they  usu- 
ally do,  performed  all  the  pioneer  missionary  work.  I  re- 
call such  Baptist  ministers  as  Chilton,  Henderson,  Welch, 
Taliaferro,  McCain,  Archer,  Pace,  Collins,  Wood.  Camp- 
meetings  were  held  every  year." 

Mr.  Finn,  the  Irish  teacher  at  "Double  Branches," 
back  in  Georgia,  had  been  invited  by  the  elder  Curry 
to  adventure  his  fortunes  in  the  new  country;  and 
the  invitation  had  been  eagerly  accepted  by  the 
sprightly  schoolmaster.  Finn  doubtless  accom- 
panied the  family  in  their  migration  across  country; 
for  it  appears  that  on  the  day  following  the  arrival  of 
the  Currys  at  Kelly's  Springs,  the  business  of  edu- 
cating the  younger  members  of  the  family  was 
promptly  taken  up.      Mr.  Finn  opened  his  school, 


ALABAMA:    '' HEEE   WE   REST"       43 

and  the  children  renewed  their  studies,  their  number 
being  gradually  augmented  by  the  advent  of  the 
children  of  the  nearest  neighbors.  Jabez  continued 
his  lessons  in  Latin,  Greek,  Algebra,  and  Geometry; 
and  stood  well  in  his  classes. 

"  The  school  was  mixed,"  he  writes,  "composed  of  boys 
and  girls.  All  the  schools  I  ever  attended,  except  the  one 
at  Willington,  South  Carolina,  were  such;  and  I  here  de- 
sire to  record  my  decided  opinion  and  my  emphatic  testi- 
mony in  favor  of  the  co-education  of  the  sexes." 

This  outspoken  opinion  of  Curry's  was  written  in 
the  early  part  of  the  year  1876,  after  long  consider- 
ation and  mature  conclusion,  in  a  life  of  which  the 
subject  of  education  had  even  then  filled  no  insig- 
nificant part;  and  he  never  wavered  in  his  faith. 
His  "Diary"  for  1889  shows  him  still  the  champion 
of  co-education  in  the  discussion  among  the  Trustees 
of  the  college  in  Virginia,  of  which  he  was  one,  in 
the  fall  and  winter  of  that  year.  It  was  a  cause 
whose  advocacy  was  not  always  popular  in  southern 
communities;  but  it  was  characteristic  of  the  man's 
courage,  and  of  his  fidelity  to  ideals  once  deliberately 
established,  that  he  was  always  outspoken  in  its 
maintenance. 

Although,  as  has  been  heretofore  stated,  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  young  state  was  perhaps  too  raw,  and 
at  all  events  too  busy  to  care  very  much  about 
politics,  there  were  offices  to  be  filled  and  officials  to 
be  voted  for;  and  in  1838  and  1839  young  Curry 
heard  for  the  first  time  the  voice  of  the  .political 
candidate,  literally,  ''upon  the  stump;"  for  the 
origin  of  the  American  phrase,  synonymous  with  the 
more  formal  and  dignified  but  no  less  expressive 


44       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

English  term,  "  on  the  hustings,"  arose  from  the 
custom  of  the  frontier  poHtician  and  orator  address- 
ing his  audience  from  the  convenient  altitude  of 
the  new-made  stump,  from  which  had  just  been 
felled  the  majestic  body  of  some  great  forest  tree. 

"Harvey  W.  Ellis  and  George  W.  Crabb  were 
candidates  for  Congress,"  Curry  writes,  in  recalling 
the  occasion.  Crabb  was  elected  as  a  Whig,  "and  I 
remember  that  in  alluding  to  the  subject  of  slavery, 
the  candidates  did  so  with  bated  breath."  Mere 
human  prescience  could  not  well  imagine  an  economic 
order  surviving  under  different  labor  conditions,  with 
the  blacks  free  and  unhindered  to  do  as  they  would; 
but  the  burden  of  ownership  of  human  beings  some- 
how rested  on  the  spirit  of  a  society  naturally  very 
kindly  and  devoted  to  freedom.  It  is  a  very  dull 
intelligence  that  does  not  perceive  the  impasse 
into  which  these  men  had  been  led  by  the  com- 
mercialism and  the  compromises  of  other  genera- 
tions. No  wonder  the  subject  was  mentioned  with 
bated  breath,  for  tragedy  or  ruin  seemed  to  guard 
every  gateway  of  solution;  and  they  felt  the  tense- 
ness of  the  situation  in  their  nerves  if  they  did  not 
dare  to  utter  it  with  their  tongues. 


CHAPTER  III 

ATHENIAN  DAYS 

One  of  the  earliest  acts  of  the  legislature  of  the 
new  State  of  Alabama  was  to  establish,  on  Decem- 
ber 18,  1820,  a  State  University.  The  act  of  estab- 
lishment donated  to  the  purposes  of  the  University 
forty-six  thousand  acres  of  land,  which  had  been  ap- 
propriated to  educational  purposes  in  the  Federal 
statute  establishing  the  new  government;  and  Tus- 
caloosa having  been  selected  as  the  site  of  the  Uni- 
versity in  1827,  work  was  commenced  upon  the 
buildings,  and  the  institution  was  opened  for  the 
admission  of  students  in  1831. 

It  might  naturally  be  supposed  that  William 
Curry  would  have  sent  his  sons  for  a  college  educa- 
tion to  the  University  of  his  adopted  State;  but, 
though  no  college-bred  man  himself,  his  intellectual 
associations  had  in  a  certain  sense  been  with  the 
leading  educational  institution  of  the  State  of  his  old 
home.  He  had  known  many  of  its  graduates;  and 
his  predilections  were  all  in  favor  of  Franklin  Col- 
lege, at  Athens,  Georgia.  Thus  it  was  that  in  Au- 
gust, 1839,  Jabez  Curry,  together  with  his  brother 
Jackson  and  their  stepbrother,  David  H.  Remsen, 
entered  Franklin  College,  an  institution  which  had 
had  its  origins  in  1785  in  a  State  charter,  appropri- 
ating certain  lands,  and  authorizing  a  University, 
which  was  located  at  Athens  in  1801  as  "Franklin 

45 


46       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

College";  and  which  grew  later  into  the  present 
University  of  Georgia. 

Of  the  reasons  why  this  particular  institution  was 
chosen  for  him,  and  of  his  matriculation  there, 
Curry,  writing  in  after  years,  suggests  the  follow- 
ing:— 

It  would  have  been  much  better  for  me  to  have  gone  to 
the  University  of  Alabama;  but  the  institution  had  had 
troubles,  and  my  father  cherished  an  attachment  for  his 
native  state.  David  and  Jackson  entered  the  Sophomore 
class.  I,  because  of  my  insufficient  age,  was  put  into  the 
Freshman  class,  and  very  properly;  although  on  my  ex- 
amination I  was  declared  capable  of  entering  a  higher 
class.  A  great  mistake  had  been  made  in  my  previous 
education.  Instead  of  studying  English  branches,  and 
learning  Grammar,  Arithmetic  and  Geography,  I  was  at 
an  early  age  put  to  learning  Latin  and  Greek,  to  the  neglect 
of  more  important  and  elementary  studies. 

The  journey  of  the  boys  from  Kelly's  Springs  to 
Athens  was  made  in  a  carriage,  and  occupied  five 
days.  The  route,  which  was  followed  thereafter  in 
later  trips  from  college,  home,  and  back  again,  tra- 
versed the  spot  where  has  since  grown  up  the  great 
and  prosperous  city  of  Atlanta. 

"When  I  first  passed  there,"  says  Curry,  "there  was 
not  a  house,  or  the  hope  of  a  village.  As  the  meeting- 
point  of  the  Georgia  and  Western  Atlantic  Railways,  the 
town  had  its  origin  in  1841,  and  was  called  Marthasville, 
after  a  daughter  of  Wilson  Lumpkin,  the  Governor. 
.  .  .  As  I  passed  to  and  fro  .  .  .  the  city  sprang 
up  as  by  magic.  During  the  War,  while  a  soldier,  I  was 
encamped  where  I  had  several  times  traveled  when  a  col- 
lege boy.  I  have  been  familiar,  in  peace  and  in  war,  with 
its  rapid  growth." 


ATHENIAN   DAYS  47 

His  room  at  the  University  was  No.  23  in  the  new 
college, — a  fact  as  worthy  of  commemoration  on  the 
part  of  those  who  value  and  appreciate  his  great  ser- 
vices in  the  cause  of  Southern  education,  as  is  the 
similar  record  by  literature-lovers  of  the  tiny  college- 
dwelling-place  of  a  great  American  poet,  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia,  that  is  lettered  in  bronze  over  the 
door:  "Parva  domus  magni  poetae.'^  Here,  in  No. 
23,  Curry  lived  and  studied  during  three  of  his  four 
formative  years  at  Athens.  Together  with  David 
Remsen,  and  his  brother  Jackson,  he  joined  the  Phi 
Kappa  Debating  Society.  There  was  another  col- 
lege society  for  the  cultivation  of  debate  among  the 
students;  but  the  lads,  with  patriotic  zeal,  chose  the 
Phi  Kappa,  because  it  had  been  and  was  the  custom 
of  most  of  the  students  from  Alabama  to  belong  to 
it.  He  records  "a,  noble  rivalry"  between  that  soci- 
ety and  the  Demosthenean.  ''They  met,"  he  writes, 
"in  their  respective  halls  on  Saturday  mornings,  and 
kept  their  proceedings  entirely  secret.  The  debates 
were  conducted  with  much  spirit.  Through  my  col- 
lege course  I  gave  much  attention  to  my  debating 
society;  and  whatever  success  I  have  achieved  as  a 
speaker  is  very  largely  attributable  to  my  training 
in  this  school."  It  is  singular  how  the  rise  of  new 
interests  in  a  more  complex  day  and  especially  the 
exaltation  of  athletic  exercises  have  caused  the 
forensic  habit  to  languish  and  dwindle. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Curry's  facility  of 
expression  as  a  speaker,  and  the  power  which  he 
illustrated  at  an  early  date  in  his  public  career  of 
holding  the  attention  of  his  audiences,  came  from  the 
admirable  and  diligent  practice  of  the  arts  of  the 
speaker   in   the   debating   society   at   Athens.     He 


48       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

writes  at  a  later  date  than  that  of  the  foregoing  ex- 
tract from  his  journal  a  reiterated  expression  of  his 
belief  in  the  great  benefit  which  he  derived  from  this 
part  of  his  college  education. 

Every  student  was  a  member  of  one  or  the  other  of  these 
organizations.  The  competition,  the  rivalry,  was  strong 
but  gentlemanly.  Each  met  every  Saturday  morning,  and 
questions  previously  selected  were  debated  with  ardor  and 
profit,  sometimes  into  the  night.  I  must  bear  emphatic 
testimony  to  the  value  of  these  exercises  upon  my  subse- 
quent career.  The  first  Greek  letter  society  was  organized 
while  I  was  a  student;  but  I  must  question  whether  these 
select  clubs  have  not  had  a  harmful  influence  upon  the 
more  useful  literary  societies. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  curriculum  and 
methods  at  that  time  prevailing  at  Franklin  College. 

"The  curriculum,"  he  writes,  "was  of  the  old-fashioned 
kind;  Latin,  Greek  and  Mathematics  predominating,  with 
very  little  science;  and  the  teaching  was  chiefly  of  the 
text-book  order.  Prof.  C.  F.  McCoy,  one  of  the  best  teach- 
ers I  ever  knew,  'kicked  out  of  the  traces,'  and  strove  with 
some  success  to  make  his  department  of  Mathematics  and 
Mechanical  Philosophy  to  conform  to  what  is  now  univer- 
sally accepted  as  a  necessity  of  liberal  education.  English 
was  ignored.  Such  text-books  as  Day's  Mathematics, 
Comstock's  Geology,  Say's  Political  Economy,  Hedge's 
Logic,  Upham's  Mental  Science,  and  Paley's  Moral  Phi- 
losophy were  used.  McCoy  pubUshed  for  his  class  a  Cal- 
culus of  his  own;  and  a  published  lecture  on  'Matter' 
created  a  local  sensation,  being  regarded  for  its  exposition 
of  'potency'  as  a  long  stride  towards  materialism.  Look- 
ing back  from  present  surroundings  and  the  great  progress 
of  college  education  and  all  teaching  (circa  1901)  I  am  con- 
strained to  say,  with  undiminished  loyalty  for  my  Alma 
Mater,  that,  McCoy  excepted,  the  President  and  Profes- 


ATHENIAN   DAYS  49 

sors  in  teaching  power  were  not  up  to  modern  standards. 
Nevertheless,  the  institution  was  of  a  solid  character,  the 
relation  between  Faculty  and  students  was  most  pleasant, 
and  the  four  years  at  college  were  among  the  most  pleas- 
ant and  profitable  of  a  long  life." 

A  striking  feature  of  Curry's  various  written 
memoranda  is  his  insistence  on  the  value  of  instruc- 
tion in  English,  whether  in  the  elementary  and  sec- 
ondary schools  or  in  the  college  curriculum.  To  this 
theory  of  his  he  gave  vigorous  and  successful  prac- 
tical form  in  his  early  teaching  days  in  Richmond. 
"Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  later  Minister  to  Spain," 
writes  Dr.  John  Bell  Henneman  of  him  in  a  paper  on 
''English  Studies  in  the  South,"  published  after 
Curry's  death,  "patron  of  letters,  and  lifelong  dev- 
otee of  educational  interests,  opened  a  course  in 
English  at  Richmond  College  almost  before  the 
smoke  of  battle  about  the  Confederate  capitol  had 
fairly  cleared  away."  About  the  same  time  Prof. 
Thomas  R.  Price  inaugurated  a  similar  work  at 
Randolph-Macon  College;  and  Dr.  Noah  K.  Davis 
had  established  a  chair  of  English  at  Bethel,  Ken- 
tucky, some  months  before  that  at  Richmond.  To 
all  three  of  these  pioneers  in  one  of  the  greatest 
fields  of  college  and  university  work,  be  accorded 
praise  and  credit. 

This  work  of  English  development  in  the  southern 
colleges,  in  the  period  immediately  succeeding  the 
War  between  the  States,  was  a  notable  one;  and  the 
names  of  many  other  English  teachers  in  the  South 
are  worthy  of  being  placed  alongside  those  of  Curry, 
Price  and  Davis.  But,  after  all  is  said,  the  distinc- 
tion of  having  been  the  real  pioneer  in  historical 
English  work,  not  only  in  the  southern  colleges,  but 


50       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

throughout   America,    belongs   to    the   many-sided 
genius  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 

"He  acquired,"  says  Dr.  Henneman,  "as  a  law-student, 
an  enthusiasm  for  the  study  of  Anglo-Saxon,  and  contin- 
ued its  advocacy  as  a  definite  part  of  the  college  curricu- 
lum, from  1779,  when  he  was  a  member  of  the  board  for 
William  and  Mary,  until  1825,  when  the  wishes  of  a  life- 
time were  at  last  realized  by  the  opening  of  his  pet  cre- 
ation, the  University  of  Virginia.  Jefferson  had  actually 
written  out,  seven  years  before;  what  is  now  a  curious 
synopsis  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  grammar  with  specimen  ex- 
tracts for  his  new  institution ;  and  this  was  the  first  formal 
incorporation  of  a  course  in  historical  English  in  an  Ameri- 
can University,  however  meagre  and  defective  a  course  of 
one  or  two  hours  a  week  in  itself  was." 

Other  influences  than  those  of  the  curriculum  and 
of  books  were  making  their  educative  effect  felt  upon 
the  young  college  student  at  Athens  in  these  signifi- 
cant years.  Lafayette  Lamar,  his  cousin,  a  youth 
of  early  poetic  promise,  cut  down  by  death  before 
fruition  when  a  soldier  in  the  first  year  of  the  War 
between  the  States,  entered  college  the  same  day 
with  him;  and  during  their  college  career  they  were 
classmates  and  warm  friends. 

"Among  my  fellow-students,"  he  wrote,  after  the  lapse 
of  sixty  years,  "I  recall  James  D.  Pope,  now  Professor  of 
Law  in  South  Carolina  College;  William  Williams,  Pro- 
fessor in  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary;  T. 
R.  R.  Cobb,  killed  at  Fredericksburg,  the  most  talented 
young  man  I  ever  knew;  Sam  Hall,  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court;  Bon  Hill,  distinguished  as  lawyer,  statesman  and 
orator;  Judges  Pottle  and  Bartlett;  Felton,  Representa- 
tive in  Congress;  Joseph  LeConte,  Linton  H.  Stephens, 
and  others  well-known  at  the  bar,  in  the  pulpit  and  legisla- 


ATHENIAN   DAYS  51 

tive  councils.  .  .  .  LeConte  became  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  all  my  fellow  collegians  as  an  author  and  a 
scientist." 

Of  Benjamin  Harvey  Hill,  orator  and  statesman, 
whose  political  career  is  comparatively  recent,  it  is 
scarcely  more  than  necessary  to  mention  here  the 
facts  that  he  served  in  the  Senate  of  the  Confederate 
States,  and  after  the  War  was  a  Congressman  and 
Senator  from  Georgia;  and  that  he  was  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous  of  American  orators  and  patriots. 

Long  after  their  boyish  association  at  Athens, 
Curry  wrote  to  his  old  college-mate,  LeConte,  then 
at  the  University  of  California,  a  letter  to  which  the 
following  is  the  reply.  The  postscript  of  this  com- 
munication possesses  a  peculiar  interest,  in  view  of 
the  tremendous  and  fateful  experience  of  San  Fran- 
cisco and  other  California  cities,  some  twenty  years 
later. 

University  of  California, 

Berkeley,  California,  May  30,  1887. 
Rev.  J.  L.  M.  Curry, 

My  dear  Sir: — Your  letter  received  this  morning  was  a 
great  surprise  and  pleasure  to  me.  I,  too,  have  followed 
your  career  and  rejoice  in  your  success.  I  remember  with 
pleasure  Jabe  Curry,  the  most  boyish  and  yet  one  of  the 
brightest  of  my  college-mates.  I  remember  the  very  active 
part  you  always  took  in  the  debates  of  the  Phi  Kappa  So- 
ciety, and  how  I  envied  your  readiness,  so  strangely  con- 
trasted with  my  own  painful  shyness.  I  have,  of  course, 
gotten  over  this  in  a  great  measure ; — only  enough  remains 
to  make  me  always  careful  to  make  thorough  preparation 
for  even  class  lectures, — much  more,  public  lectures. 

My  life  has  indeed  been  a  happy  one  in  all  its  relations. 
I  have  enough  to  satisfy  my  simple  wants.  My  activity  is 
in  a  field  which  is  in  the  highest  degree  pleasant,  and  which 


52       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

does  not  pall  on  the  taste.  My  domestic  life  has  been  full 
of  love  to  wife  and  children  and  grandchildren.  I  have 
had  much  to  be  thankful  for,  and  I  hope  I  am  thankful. 

If  you  have  followed  my  writings,  especially  in  the 
Princeton  Review,  you  are  doubtless  aware  of  my  position 
on  the  great  questions  of  "Evolution  and  its  relation  to 
rehgious  thought."  I  really  feel  very  deeply  on  this  sub- 
ject. I  herewith  send  you  a  little  pamphlet  on  the  sub- 
ject. Perhaps  most  of  it  you  have  seen  before,  but  not  all. 
You  must  not  draw  any  inference  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
published  by  Unitarians.  I  am  still  a  Presbyterian,  but  I 
do  a  good  deal  of  independent  thinking  of  my  own.  I  am 
aware  that  some  will  think  that  my  views  tend  toward 
Pantheism;  but  I  had  no  time  to  answer  this  implication. 
I  have  just  written  a  small  book  on  this  subject.  It  will 
try  to  answer  briefly  three  questions — 1.  What  is  Evolu- 
tion? 2.  What  are  the  evidences  of  its  truth?  3.  What 
effect  will  it  have  on  traditional  views,  and  on  religious 
thought  generally?  In  this  book  I  will  answer  the  Pan- 
theistic objection.  I  hope  Appleton  will  bring  it  out  in  the 
autumn. 

I  shall  be  glad,  very  glad,  to  hear  from  you  again,  and  to 
hear  more  about  your  personal  concerns.  For  I  would 
gladly  revive  my  interest  in  one  whom  I  admired  even  as  a 
boy. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

Joseph  LeConte. 

P.  S. — We  have  just  received  two  or  three  first  class 
seismographs.  Wanted,  an  earthquake  to  record.  They 
are  rather  scarce  about  here  just  now.  If  you  have  any  to 
spare,  send  them  on. 

Jos.  LeConte. 

Curry  was  in  Spain  when  he  received  this  letter; 
and  LeConte  did  not  live  to  see  the  great  Californian 
earthquake,  which  equalled  many  of  the  most  terrible 


ATHENIAN   DAYS  53 

that  have  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  Spanish 
Peninsula.  LeConte,  who  was  born  in  Liberty 
County,  Georgia,  in  1823,  died  in  the  Yosemite  Val- 
ley in  1901,  nearly  two  years  before  the  death  of 
Curry.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  American 
scientists;  and  while  his  foremost  work  was  in  the 
field  of  geology,  he  did  much  to  popularize  science 
by  his  contributions  to  the  literature  of  many  of  its 
branches.  He  was  a  teacher  and  professor  succes- 
sively in  Oglethorpe  College;  in  his  alma  mater, 
Franklin  College,  where  he  and  Curry  had  been 
classmates;  in  South  Carolina  College;  and  in  the 
University  of  California,  where_he  occupied  the 
chair  of  geology,  botany  and  natural  history  from 
its  establishment  in  1869,  to  the  date  of  his  death. 
Linton  Stephens,  who  became  a  prominent  lawyer 
and  judge  in  Georgia,  was  another  of  Curry's  college- 
mates  at  Athens.  He  had  been  left  an  orphan  at 
the  age  of  three;  and  it  was  at  the  cost  and  expense 
of  his  brother,  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  that  Linton 
pursued  his  studies  at  Athens.  After  graduating, 
he  studied  law  at  Harvard  and  in  the  University  of 
Virginia,  and  achieved  distinction  as  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State.  He  also  served  as  a 
colonel  in  the  Confederate  army,  and  died  at  Sparta, 
Georgia,  in  1872.  His  famous  brother,  Alexander 
H.  Stephens,  later  the  Vice-President  of  the  Con- 
federate States,  and  one  of  the  ablest  vindicators  of 
that  ill-starred  government  in  his  history  entitled 
''The  War  between  the  States,"  used  to  come  oc- 
casionally to  Athens  to  see  his  younger  brother  and 
protege,  Linton;  and  it  was  on  the  occasion  of  one 
of  these  visits  that  Curry  first  met  him  and  made  his 
acquaintance.     He  had  then  been  a  practising  law- 


54       J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

yer  only  about  four  years;  but  was  already  on  the 
high-tide  of  a  great  law  practice.  In  1834,  he  had 
been  admitted  to  the  bar  of  his  native  State  of 
Georgia.  It  is  said  that  in  the  first  year  of  his 
practice  he  lived  on  six  dollars  a  week,  and  made 
four  hundred  dollars  from  his  cases  that  year.  It 
was  not  long,  however,  before  he  owned  the  old 
family  homestead  at  Crawfordsville,  and  had  pur- 
chased the  estate  which  afterwards  became  widely 
known  in  his  possession  as  ''Liberty  Hall."  Curry 
describes  him  at  this  period,  as  "a  small,  tallow- 
faced,  effeminate-looking  man,  apparently  near  the 
grave."  It  was  a  physical  appearance  that  charac- 
terized him  to  the  end.  The  body  was  frail  and 
weak,  but  the  spirit  that  it  encased  was  quenchless, 
while  life  lasted.  This  mighty  and  commanding 
spirit  was  illustrated  in  1848  in  a  personal  collision 
which  he  had  at  Greensboro  with  Judge  Cone,  grow- 
ing out  of  a  political  discussion  of  the  Clayton  com- 
promise measure  of  that  year.  Cone  cut  Stephens 
dangerously  and  desperately  with  a  knife,  saying: 
''Now,  damn  you,  retract,  or  I'll  cut  your  throat!" 
Covered  with  blood,  and  terribly  wounded,  Stephens 
answered:  "Never!  cut!"  grasping  as  he  spoke  the 
keen  blade  of  Cone's  knife  with  a  right  hand  that 
was  thenceforward  maimed  for  life.  He  lived  to  a 
green  old  age,  serving  his  country  with  conspicuous 
ability,  and  unexcelled  patriotism;  and  until  the 
day  of  his  death  was  Curry's  sincere  and  faithful 
friend. 

Other  interesting  acquaintances  and  friends  that 
he  made  during  the  period  of  his  life  at  Athens  were 
the  political  orators  who  came  thither  in  the  Pres- 
idential  campaign   of   1840,   between   Martin  Van 


ATHENIAN   DAYS  55 

Buren  and  William  Henry  Harrison,  to  speak  at  the 
Saturday  evening  meetings  which  were  held  in  the 
town  hall  at  Athens.  Among  these  he  makes  men- 
tion of  William  L.  Mitchell,  Hopkins  Halsey,  Junius 
Hillyer,  Howell  Cobb,  Henry  R.  Jackson,  and  Judge 
Charles  Dougherty. 

"I  heard  a  speech,"  Curry  writes,  "impassioned  and 
violent,  from  Mr.  Jackson,  and  Judge  Dougherty  pounded 
him  into  mince-meat.  Mr.  Jackson  was  afterwards  charge- 
d' affaires  at  Vienna,  a  judge  in  Georgia,  and  a  general  in 
the  Confederate  army.  My  father  being  a  democrat,  I 
became  one  also,  and  began  this  year  to  read  the  news- 
papers." 

Jackson's  fame  rests  not  solely  upon  his  career  as 
politician,  judge  and  soldier.  He  was  a  poet  of 
unusual  distinction  and  literary  charm,  and  has  left 
behind  him  in  ''the  written  word  that  remains,"  a 
more  enduring  claim  upon  posterity  than  in  any 
other  of  his  accomplishments.  One  of  his  most 
beautiful  lyrics,  that  has  been  not  infrequently  at- 
tributed by  ill-informed  newspaper  writers  to  "Stone- 
wall" Jackson,  whose  knowledge  or  appreciation  of 
poetry  was  probably  infinitesimal,  is  that  entitled 
"My  Wife  and  Child,"  written  when  he  was  com- 
manding the  ''Irish  Jasper  Greens,"  in  the  only 
regiment  that  went  to  the  War  with  Mexico  from 
Georgia : — 

The  tattoo  beats;  the  lights  are  gone; 

The  camp  around  in  slumber  lies; 
The  night  with  solemn  pace  moves  on; 

The  shadows  thicken  o'er  the  skies, 
But  sleep  my  weary  eyes  hath  flown, 

And  sad,  uneasy  thoughts  arise. 


56       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

About  this  time  Curry  first  enjoyed  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  himself  in  print.  He  makes  record  of  the 
fact  that  in  December,  1841,  doubtless  inspired  with 
his  perusal  of  the  journals  so  recently  begun  to  be 
read  by  him,  he  contributed  some  slight  anonymous 
communication  to  one  of  the  papers,  which  was  duly 
published. 

"When  it  appeared  in  print,"  he  records,  with  charm- 
ing naivete,  "  I  was  as  proud  as  Byron  was  when  he  awoke 
and  found  himself  famous.  I  read  the  article  over  and 
over  many  times,  and  could  hardly  restrain  my  boisterous 
exultation.  I  never  had  been  as  happy.  What  the  thing 
was  about  I  don't  know;  but  all  subsequent  successes  have 
never  half  so  elated  me." 

There  were  other  experiences  of  these  college  days 
which  kept  them  from  being  monotonous,  and  left 
their  vivid  images  upon  the  plastic  mind  of  the  young 
student.  Politics  and  political  events  were  begin- 
ning to  assume  definite  shape  in  his  thought;  and  re- 
curring to  the  period  after  a  lapse  of  thirty-five 
years,  he  writes  about  Whiggery  and  Democracy: 

General  Harrison  died  a  month  after  his  inauguration, 
and  Vice-president  Tyler  succeeded  him.  Mr.  Clay,  the 
great  and  arbitrary  leader  of  the  Whig  party,  tried  to  carry 
out  his  policy  of  a  National  Bank,  a  Protective  Tariff,  Dis- 
tribution of  the  Proceeds  of  the  Public  Lands,  &c.  Con- 
gress twice  passed  bills  establishing  a  Bank,  and  President 
Tyler  twice  vetoed  them.  During  study  hours  I  went  to 
the  Post-office,  and  learned  that  Tyler  had  sent  in  a  second 
veto.  As  I  passed  through  the  campus,  I  hurrahed  for 
Tyler;  and  Dr.  Hall,  one  of  the  Professors,  saw  and  heard 
me,  and  fined  me  one  dollar.  I  thought  then  he  did  it  be- 
cause he  was  a  Whig,  and  was  mortified  at  what  Tyler  had 
done;  but  I  see  now  he  was  clearly  right. 


ATHENIAN   DAYS  57 

Age  brings  with  it  conservatism  and  charity;  and 
Curry's  final  conclusion  as  to  the  real  reason  of  this 
fine  does  credit  to  his  sense  of  kindliness.  But  the 
politics  of  the  period  were  bitter,  and  the  Whigs' 
wrath  at  what  they  were  pleased  to  call  the  tergiver- 
sation of  Tyler  was  very  great.  For  a  student  to 
hurrah  for  any  one  during  study  hours  upon  the 
campus  was  very  culpable.  That  he  should  hurrah 
for  Tyler  in  the  sight  and  hearing  of  a  Whig  profes- 
sor was  likewise  very  reprehensible.  After  the  lapse 
of  time,  and  upon  consideration  of  the  immutability 
of  human  nature  throughout  the  years,  who  shall 
say  what  it  was  that  really  produced  the  atoning 
dollar  from  the  pocket  of  the  offending  young  col- 
legian? 

At  this  period  of  his  life,  too,  began  his  acquaint- 
ance with  the  gentler  sex.    Let  him  narrate  it : — 

During  the  three  years  I  had  been  in  college,  I  had 
never  visited  a  lady.  I  was  the  least  boy  in  the  College, 
hardly  weighing  one  hundred  pounds,  and  I  was  excess- 
ively modest  and  timid.  I  was  "afraid"  of  female  society. 
I  had  had  no  sisters,  grew  up  unfortunately  among  boys, 
and  lacked  that  ease  and  freedom  and  self-poise  of  manner 
and  ability  to  converse  on  ordinary  topics,'  which  are  such 
a  necessary  part  of  a  boy's  education.  My  own  painful 
embarrassment,  which  has  never  left  me,  taught  me  a  les- 
son; and  now  I  urge  young  men,  for  many  reasons,  to  visit 
the  opposite  sex.  My  cousin,  Lafayette  Lamar,  and  a 
classmate,  Thomas  W.  White,  later  a  prominent  lawyer  in 
Mississippi,  begged  me  to  accompany  them  in  some  of 
their  visits.  I  resolved  to  go,  and  for  days  before  the  time 
arrived  I  thought  about  it,  and  it  weighed  on  me  like  a 
nightmare.  It  seems  ludicrous  now  to  recall  my  feelings; 
but  I  have  since  gone  into  battle  with  far  less  tremor  and 
agitation  than  I  experienced  in  anticipation  of  a  visit. 


58       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

The  President  of  the  College,  Dr.  Alonzo  Church,  had 
some  beautiful  and  accomplished  daughters,  who  were 
great  favorites.  I  knew  them  very  well  by  sight, — saw 
them  nearly  every  day, — and  determined  to  begin  with 
them.  The  appointed  night  came.  Urging  my  cousin  not 
to  stay  to  a  late  hour,  and  to  help  me  in  the  event  of  my 
failing  in  conversation,  I  "crossed  the  Rubicon."  The 
ladies,  quite  skilled  in  drawing  out  young  men,  with  a 
kindness  which  I  gratefully  record  now,  so  helped  me  that 
an  hour  passed  very  agreeably,  and  I  have  never  been 
called  upon  to  pass  through  just  such  an  ordeal  since. 

The  Rubicon  once  crossed,  the  ladies  of  the  col- 
lege town  came  to  have  the  pleasure  of  his  company 
not  infrequently;  and  in  consequence  he  was  able  to 
testify  afterwards  that  'Hhe  last  six  months  of  my 
college  life  were  by  far  the  most  pleasant  of  my 
whole  four  years." 

In  August,  1842,  Jackson  Curry  graduated  from 
the  college.  Usually  at  commencement  there  were 
two  days  for  original  speeches,  one  for  juniors  rising 
senior,  and  one  for  the  honor  graduates.  Eight  or 
ten  of  the  juniors  who  had  the  best  standing  in  their 
classes  were  elected  by  the  Faculty  as  junior  orators. 
On  this  occasion  Jabez  Curry  was  one  of  the  chosen 
number,  and  delivered  a  highly  eulogistic  address  on 
Andrew  Jackson.  When  he  returned  to  college  after 
the  next  winter  vacation,  which  lasted  from  Novem- 
ber 1st  to  January  15th,  he  took  lodgings  outside  the 
college,  in  town,  so  as  to  live  more  comfortably,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  have  a  more  complete  control  of 
his  time.  From  this  period,  until  the  close  of  his 
college  career  at  Athens,  his  industry  and  applica- 
tion were  very  great.  He  studied  with  much  per- 
sistence and  purpose,  and  averaged  from  twelve  to 


ATHENIAN   DAYS  59 

fourteen  hours  a  day  at  his  work.  In  consequence  of 
a  deficiency  in  mathematics,  he  was  fearful  of  not 
being  able  to  graduate,  and  it  was  to  this  branch  of 
learning  that  he  especially  applied  himself  during 
these  last  college  months.  He  was  consumed  with 
the  almost  morbid  feeling  that  to  fail  of  graduation 
after  having  filled  the  distinguished  position  of 
junior  orator  involved  a  deep  and  abiding  disgrace. 
But,  happily,  the  conclusion  of  the  final  examinations 
demonstrated  him  to  be  abreast  of  the  requirements; 
and  he  received  his  diploma  as  a  graduate  in  August, 
1843.  In  the  classics  he  had  approved  himself  among 
the  first.  In  political  economy,  mental  philosophy, 
and  other  subjects  which  do  not  involve  a  serious 
knowledge  of  mathematics,  he  had  experienced  no 
difficulty.  By  intense  application  and  judicious  cul- 
tivation, he  had  acquired  a  tenacious  memory,  which 
enabled  him  upon  occasion  to  recite  as  many  as  from 
ten  to  fifteen  pages  of  a  book  verbatim.  This  capac- 
ity is  not  infrequently  an  accompaniment  of  the 
linguistic  talent;  but  it  was  not  in  that  direction 
alone  that  he  prevailed,  for  he  learned  his  mathe- 
matics as  those  do  not  learn  it  who  rely  solely  on 
memory. 

In  the  distribution  of  academic  honors  at  the  con- 
clusion of  his  four  years'  term,  the  four  leading  dis- 
tinctions fell,  in  order,  to  Linton  Stephens,  Thomas 
White,  Jabez  Curry  and  Lafayette  Lamar.  Their 
bestowal  reversed  the  trite  and  long-standing  aphor- 
ism that  a  boy's  college-career  may  not  be  taken  as  a 
prognostic  of  what  he  will  do  later  in  life.  All  of 
these  four  young  men,  save  one  who  died  with  the 
pathetic  promise  of  youth  unfulfilled,  became  dis- 
tinguished men.      The  college  lad  who  succeeds  in 


60        J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

later  years  may  sometimes  fail  of  his  college  honors; 
but  the  exception  proves  the  rule  that,  in  some  one 
way  or  other,  he  has  made  and  left  his  mark  upon 
the  student-body,  or  upon  the  college  life. 

Jabez  was  again  elected  orator.  He  chose  for  his 
theme,  the  thought  which  very  often  gets  close  to 
the  consciousness  of  the  boy  who  stands,  at  his  grad- 
uation, face  to  face  with  life's  opening  career;  and  is 
illustrated  in  Byron's  lines,  which  prefaced  young 
Curry's  final  oration: 

No  more,  no  more,  oh,  never  more  on  me. 
The  freshness  of  the  heart  shall  fall  like  dew. 

"I  do  not  remember  a  word  of  the  speech,"  he  wrote  in 
1876.  "In  delivering  it,  I  was  applauded,  while  speaking 
and  at  the  close.    The  former  applause  was  exceptional." 


CHAPTER  IV 

HARVARD    AND    NEW   ENGLAND    INFLUENCES 

With  his  graduation  from  college  Curry  faced 
the  momentous  question  of  what  path  he  should 
next  pursue.  Upon  his  return  home,  the  problem 
was  discussed,  during  the  month  succeeding  his  de- 
parture from  Athens,  by  his  family  and  friends  in 
Talladega,  and  was  thoughtfully  pondered  and  con- 
sidered by  himself. 

"My  father  proposed  to  send  me  to  Germany  to  con- 
tinue my  collegiate  studies,"  he  wrote  many  years  later, 
"but,  in  my  unwisdom,  I  yielded  to  the  persuasions  of  rela- 
tives, and  went  in  September,  1843,  to  Cambridge,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  entered  the  Dane  Law  School  of  Harvard 
College." 

His  father's  proposition  to  send  him  to  Germany 
indicated  not  only  the  broad  view  of  life  which  the 
country  planter  and  storekeeper  entertained,  and  his 
unerring  recognition  of  his  son's  unusual  talents, 
but  proves  no  less  that  planting  and  store-keeping 
had  been  profitable  employments  in  William  Curry's 
case;  for  in  those  days  to  educate  a  son  in  Europe 
was  no  insignificant  tax  upon  the  financial  means  of 
Southern  Americans.  The  University  of  Virginia 
had  been  in  successful  operation  for  eighteen  years, 
and  thither  Curry's  fellow-graduate,  Linton  Ste- 
phens, went  to  pursue  his  studies;  but  many  people 

61 


62       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

regarded  the  discipline  of  the  "honor  system"  at 
Charlottesville  as  too  lax  for  young  men;  and  the 
stream  of  Southern  youths  in  the  direction  of  Har- 
vard and  Yale  and  Princeton,  that  had  antedated 
the  opening  of  Jefferson's  seminary  of  learning,  con- 
tinued to  flow  North,  in  spite  of  political  rancor 
and  the  fiery  gospel  of  anti-slavery,  up  to  the  very 
outbreak  of  the  War  between  the  States. 

Young  Curry  begun  his  journey  northward  in 
September  of  the  year  of  his  graduation  from  Athens. 
It  was  a  memorable,  and  in  many  respects,  a  liberal- 
izing journey.  He  went  by  private  conveyance  from 
his  father's  house,  over  the  familiar  route  to  Athens; 
and  thence  proceeded  by  rail  to  Augusta.  It  was 
with  no  light  heart  that  he  undertook  and  pursued 
his  way  northward.  "I  had  no  experience  as  a  trav- 
eller," he  writes,  "and  in  those  days  travelling  was 
not  as  easy  and  common  as  now." 

It  was  still  a  period  of  stage  coaches,  and  corduroy 
roads,  and  primitive  wayside  inns,  with  now  and 
then  a  typical  specimen  of  the  early  "snakehead  rail- 
road." Curry  has  left  an  entertaining  account  of 
these  means  and  methods  of  the  locomotion  of  that 
day,  in  an  article  written  by  him  in  1901,  and  pub- 
lished by  the  Southern  History  Association,  under 
the  title  of  "The  South  in  Olden  Times." 

In  my  boyish  days,  railways  were  few  and  short.  In 
Alabama,  in  1843,  there  were  only  two,  one  around  Muscle 
Shoals,  and  the  other  between  Montgomery  and  Franklin; 
and  it  was  put  down  on  string-pieces  with  flat  iron  bars, 
which  torn  up  by  wheels  occasionally  projected  into  the 
cars,  impaling  passengers  on  what  were  termed  "snake- 
heads."  In  1843,  en  route  to  Harvard,  I  travelled  from 
Augusta  to  Charleston  by  rail,  built  nearly  all  the  way  on 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     63 

trestle-work,  and  by  steamer  from  Charleston  to  Wilming- 
ton. Much  travel  in  those  days  was  on  horseback,  or  in 
hacks,  or  picturesque  stage-coaches,  which  signalled  their 
arrival  in  towns  and  villages,  and  notified  the  taverns  of 
the  number  of  their  passengers  by  long  tin  horns,  or  by 
making  more  ambitious  music  on  bugles.  The  stage- 
drivers  knew  every  body  on  the  road,  carried  packages  and 
messages,  and  were  sometimes  the  confidants  of  country 
lasses  and  bashful  beaux.  The  bonifaces  are  often  drawn 
in  character-sketches;  but  the  stage-driver  of  the  olden 
time,  a  typical  class,  has  escaped  portraiture  by  pen  and 
pencil.    Romances  of  the  road  are  unused  material. 

He  stopped  on  his  way  North  for  a  few  hours  in 
Augusta,  Georgia,  where  he  had  once  visited  before 
he  left  Lincoln  County. 

"Being  a  mere  lad,"  he  records  of  this  visit,  "I  remem- 
bered only  two  things, — a  big  candy  store,  and  a  steam- 
boat that  plied  on  the  Savannah  River  between  Augusta 
and  Savannah.  From  Augusta  I  had  to  go  to  Charles- 
ton. The  railroad  was  built  entirely  on  trestle  work,  and 
not  by  excavation  and  embankment,  as  now.  At  Aiken,  a 
little  town  which  has  since  become  noted  as  a  resort  for 
invalids,  there  was  an  inclined  plane;  and  an  engine,  going 
down  a  parallel  track,  by  means  of  very  large  ropes  drew 
the  train  to  the  summit  of  the  hill.  The  country  west  of 
Charleston  was  dreary  enough.  The  swamps  and  cypress- 
trees  and  alligators  were  quite  novel.  At  Charleston  I  took 
a  steamboat  for  Wilmington,  reaching  there  just  at  sunrise. 
I  was  not  seasick.  Before  the  lines  of  railroad  were  com- 
pleted, all  the  travel  from  Alabama  and  Georgia  to  the 
North  had  to  be  done  on  this  route  between  the  cities  by 
water.  I  travelled  by  rail  from  Wilmington  to  Weldon, 
and  thence  to  Portsmouth  in  Virginia.  The  long  white 
pines  in  North  Carolina,  and  the  tar,  pitch  and  turpen- 
tine, made  an  impression  on  me.    From  Portsmouth  I  was 


64       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

carried  up  the  Chesapeake  Bay  by  steamer  to  Baltimore, 
thence  by  rail  to  New  York,  stopping  at  a  hotel  on 
Broadway,  where,  to  my  surprise,  the  guests  were  all 
furnished  at  dinner  with  ice-cream!  The  Astor  House 
was,  I  think,  not  then  built;  and  where  the  Fifth 
Avenue  now  is,  was  out  of  town.  I  went  through 
Long  Island  Sound  by  steamer  to  some  point  in  Rhode 
Island,  where  I  took  a  railroad  and  was  carried  to  Bos- 
ton. From  Boston  I  went  to  Cambridge  in  an  omni- 
bus that  plied  regularly  between  the  towns,  and  was 
driven  by  one  Moss,  whom  the  Boston  Post  proposed, 
on  account  of  his  thirty  years'  faithful  services,  to  honor 
with  the  title  of  D.D. — Doctor  of  Drivers.  At  Cambridge 
I  found  my  cousin,  William  Curry,  of  Perry  County,  Ala- 
bama, a  student  of  law." 

A  very  short  time  after  his  arrival,  he  matricu- 
lated as  a  student  in  the  famous  Dane  Law  School, 
which  has  been  in  its  career  as  distinguished  for  the 
eminence  of  its  professors  as  for  the  greatness 
achieved  by  so  many  of  its  students.  It  had  been 
founded  in  1829,  and  named  for  its  founder,  accord- 
ing to  whose  stipulation  Joseph  Story  was  elected 
its  first  professor.  The  year  before  there  had  been 
only  one  law  student  in  Harvard  College.  In  1829, 
under  Story,  the  attendance  in  the  Dane  Law  School 
was  thirty;  and  thenceforward  its  numbers  steadily 
increased.  When  Curry  entered  it  in  1843,  there 
were  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  law  students. 
Story,  then  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  still  continued  a  professor  in  the 
school ;  and  his  illustrious  associate  was  Simon  Green- 
leaf,  author  of  the  ''Law  of  Evidence."  Curry  makes 
mention  of  Story's  genial  humor  and  cordiality, 
which  contributed  scarcely  less  than  his  great  abil- 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     65 

ity  to  his  wonderful  success  as  a  teacher  of  law. 
Story,  on  one  occasion,  introduced  his  colleague  to 
an  audience  with  an  inimitable  wit:  ''Ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen, Mr.  Professor  Greenleaf:  The  best  evidence 
of  his  law  is  his  Law  of  Evidence."  It  is  related  of 
him,  too,  that  at  some  public  function,  he  toasted 
Mr.  Edward  Everett  as  follows : — 

Eloquence  flows 
Where  Ever-ett  goes; 

to  which  the  latter  promptly  replied: — 

However  high  one  may  climb  in  the  legal  profession  in 
this  Commonwealth,  he  will  always  find  one  Story  higher. 

A  writer  in  the  Green  Bag,  a  Boston  publication 
of  the  lighter  sort  for  lawyers,  who  was  a  con- 
temporary of  Curry's  in  the  Law  School  at  Harvard, 
writes  of  Story  as  a  teacher  of  law : 

I  had  not  enjoyed  a  sight  of  him  until,  as  a  law  student, 
I  confronted  him  at  his  professional  desk.  I  lost  attention 
to  that  first  lecture  in  contemplating  the  great  jurist,  and 
in  musing  upon  my  knowledge  of  what  he  had  achieved. 
When  he  presided  at  the  moot-courts  which  he  had  estab- 
lished for  the  nisi  prius  practice  of  the  students,  or  for 
their  views  upon  a  stated  controversy,  generally  patterned 
from  some  case  in  his  circuit,  Professor  Story  was  the  em- 
bodiment of  geniality,  and  seemed  as  pleased  with  the  pro- 
ceedings as  would  be  a  child  at  blindman's  buff.  His 
constant  tenet  to  students  was  "the  nobility  and  attract- 
iveness of  the  legal  profession." 

Of  his  two  law-teachers  in  the  Dane  School,  Curry 
has  left  this  interesting  minute : — 

Judge  Story  was  a  genial,  cheerful,  cordial  man,  full  of 
humor  and  anecdote,  very  fond  of  the  boys,  and  told  us  in 


66       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

his  lectures  charming  incidents  about  such  lawyers  as 
Webster  and  Mason  and  William  Pinkney,  and  Sargeant 
and  Binney,  Simon  Greenleaf,  a  native  of  Maine,  was 
chosen  professor  on  recommendation  of  Judge  Story. 
Without  the  affluence  of  learning  or  ornate  diction  of 
Judge  Story,  he  was  a  more  painstaking  and  accurate 
lawyer,  with  keener  analysis  and  more  logical  power.  He 
was  quite  popular,  but  stricter  than  his  colleague,  to  whom 
he  was  deeply  attached. 

The  scene,  the  intellectual  atmosphere,  the  asso- 
ciations of  instructors  and  companions,  were  all  alike 
inspiring  to  the  eager  and  impressionable  mind  of  the 
young  Southerner.  It  was  the  beginning  of  that 
characteristic  Americanism,  which  grew  and  devel- 
oped in  him  thenceforward  as  long  as  he  lived;  and 
which  made  him,  while  clinging  tenaciously  to  the 
political  concepts  of  the  Calhoun  theory  of  the  Con- 
stitution, even  after  the  real  destruction  of  that 
theory  by  the  event  of  war,  as  loyal  to  the  government 
that  had  come  to  be  based  on  other  and  adverse  prin- 
ciples, as  he  had  ever  been  to  that  which  sought  to 
perpetuate  the  Calhoun  interpretation  and    failed. 

Josiah  Quincy  was  then  President  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege. Story  and  Greenleaf  were  illuminating  the 
minds  of  their  pupils  with  the  splendor  of  their  in- 
tellects and  the  richness  of  their  knowledge.  Anson 
Burlingame,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  Thomas  J. 
Semmes,  and  many  other  men  of  subsequent  dis- 
tinction were  among  his  classmates;  while  the  New 
England  air  was  vibrant  with  the  stirring  politics, 
the  intellectual  thought,  and  the  unconventional 
religious  ideas  which  characterized  the  Massachu- 
setts of  the  period.  Curry  devoted  himself  with 
great  industry  to  his  law  studies,  and  did  a  very 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     67 

considerable  amount  of  miscellaneous  reading.  The 
libraries  teemed  with  all  sorts  of  books,  and  to  them 
the  students  of  the  college  had  general  access. 
Macaulay  stirred  him  as  with  a  trumpet-note: — 

"Macaulay's  Miscellanies,  as  they  were  then  called,"  he 
writes,  "were  published  in  cheap  form;  and  I  read  and  re- 
read them  with  increasing  profit  and  admiration.  Few 
books  have  more  affected  my  style  and  thought." 

But  books  and  lectures  and  law-studies  were  in- 
sufficient, in  that  keen  air,  to  fill  the  measure  of  the 
young  man's  developing  and  eager  thought.  He 
went  to  hear  the  professors  in  the  academic  schools. 
Longfellow  had  just  finished  "The  Spanish  Student," 
and  was  discharging  the  duties  of  his  professor- 
ship. Lowell  was  editing  the  Pioneer  magazine  in 
Boston,  with  Poe,  Hawthorne,  Elizabeth  Barrett 
Browning,  Whittier  and  William  Wetmore  Story 
among  its  contributors;  Jared  Sparks  was  teaching 
history  in  Harvard,  and  Curry  sat  at  his  feet  as  at 
the  feet  of  Gamaliel;  while  Wendell  Phillips  and 
William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  ''The  Liberator"  were 
making  history  throughout  America.  In  the  na- 
tional capitol  at  Washington,  John  Quincy  Adams 
was  pouring  into  the  hopper  of  legislation  the  ever 
disappearing,  but  none  the  less  fatal,  ''abolition 
petitions."  John  C.  Calhoun,  with  logical  exactness 
and  prophetic  foresight,  was  philosophizing  upon 
the  construction  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and 
foretelling  the  doom  to  come.  Macready  and  For- 
rest and  Charlotte  Cushman  and  the  elder  Booth 
were  playing  to  cultivated  and  intellectual  audiences 
in  the  theatres  of  Boston;  and  Theodore  Parker  and 
Dr.  Kirk  and  Dr.  Walker  were  preaching  in  the 


68        J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

churches  the  word  of  God  according  to  the  gospel 
of  Boston.  It  was  a  period  and  an  atmosphere 
worthy  of  the  beginnings  of  the  mental  and  spiritual 
life  of  a  young  man  of  such  talents  and  ambitions  as 
Curry's.  Hawthorne,  whose  artist's  soul  was  dis- 
pleased by  the  strident  clamor  and  obtrusive  senti- 
mentalism  of  the  time,  said  that  every  other  man 
one  met  had  in  his  vest  pocket  a  scheme  for  the 
reformation  of  the  universe.  It  was  indeed  a  time 
when  New  England  was  swept  by  a  passion  of 
humanitarianism  and  social  sympathy. 

Curry  attended  the  theatres  when  he  could,  and 
witnessed  the  great  reproductions  of  classic  plays 
by  actors  and  actresses,  whose  fame  remains  un- 
eclipsed  by  that  of  any  of  their  successors.  He 
listened  in  the  churches  on  Sundays  to  fervid 
ecclesiastical  rhetoric,  and  to  the  promulgation  of 
new  and  transcendental  religious  doctrines,  with 
the  prescient  eagerness  of  one  who  was  himself  in 
later  years  destined  to  shine  as  a  pulpit  orator.  He 
attended  occasional  meetings  of  the  then  despised 
and  abhorred  abolitionists,  with  little  thought  of 
the  part  that  he  should  be  called  upon  by  his  larger 
Americanism  to  play  in  a  later  attempted  emancipa- 
tion of  the  negro  race  from  the  bondage  of  credulity 
and  ignorance.  His  career  as  a  student  in  the  Law 
School  at  Harvard  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  the 
awakening  experiences  of  the  place  and  times. 

"The  abolitionists,"  he  writes  of  them  in  that  day, 
"were  a  noisy  and  fanatical  faction,  with  more  strength  in 
Massachusetts  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  Union,  but 
were  despised  there  as  half-crazy  and  fanatical. 

"Wendell  Phillips,  Tappan,  Bowen,  Garrison,  and  some 
women  were  the  leaders,"  he  continues.    "I  attended  at 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     69 

Concord  an  abolition  meeting, — hired  a  buggy,  and  drove 
that  distance  to  attend  an  anti-slavery  meeting.  It  was 
held  in  a  church,  and  very  few  were  present.  In  1844  the 
abolition  sentiment  took  form  and  organization  under  the 
name  of  the  'Liberty  Party,'  and  I  heard  James  G.Birney, 
the  candidate  of  the  party  for  the  Presidency,  deliver 
an  address  to  not  more  than  two  hundred  people  in 
Faneuil  Hall.  Verily,  times  have  changed  since  I  was  a 
student!" 

The  year  1844  was  one  of  violent  and  tremendous 
political  excitement.  The  abolitionists  meant  to 
destroy  slavery,  though  its  destruction  should  mean 
the  destruction  of  the  Union.  They  were  the  first 
secessionists.  "Mark!"  wrote  Garrison  in  the  Lib- 
erator. ''How  stands  Massachusetts  at  this  hour  in 
reference  to  the  Union?  Just  where  she  ought  to 
be — in  an  attitude  of  open  hostility." 

"Let  the  Union  be  accursed,"  said  the  Liberator' 
"Look  at  the  awful  compromises  of  the  Constitution  by 
which  that  instrument  is  saturated  with  the  blood  of  the 
slave!" 

"So  much  for  entering  into  a  covenant  with  death,  and 
an  agreement  with  hell!"  pubhshed  the  Liberator,  concern- 
ing the  Federal  Constitution,  twelve  years  after  Curry  had 
departed  from  Harvard.  "We  confess  that  we  intend  to 
trample  under  foot  the  Constitution  of  this  country,"  said 
Mr.  Wendell  Philhps  at  a  later  date;  and  Mr.  Garrison  de- 
manded, in  1855,  "a  Northern  Confederacy,  with  no 
Union  with  slave-holders." 

Of  Calhoun,  whose  devotion  to  the  Union  under 
the  Constitution  Curry  had  already  come  clearly  to 
comprehend,  and  whose  philosophical  and  logical 
interpretation  of  that  instrument  he  never  ceased, 
through  a  long  life  of  service  to  his  country,  to  ap- 


70       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

prove,  Von  Hoist,  a  hostile  and  antagonistic  biog- 
rapher has  written: — 

The  charge  was  wholly  unfounded  that  he  was  endeavor- 
ing intentionally  to  incense  the  North  and  the  South 
against  each  other,  in  order  to  promote  the  purpose  of  his 
party.  He  spoke  the  simple  truth,  when  he  asserted  in  his 
speech  of  March  9,  1836,  that  "however  caluminated  and 
slandered,"  he  had  "ever  been  devotedly  attached  to  the 
Union  and  the  institution  of  the  country,"  and  that  he  was 
"anxious  to  perpetuate  them  to  the  latest  generation." 
He  acted  under  the  firm  conviction  of  an  imperious  duty 
towards  the  South  and  towards  the  Union,  and  his  asser- 
tion was  but  too  well  founded  that  these  petitions  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  were  blows 
on  the  wedge,  which  would  ultimately  break  the  Union 
asunder. 

So  it  remains,  in  vindication  of  the  truth  of  history, 
that  however  really  the  War  between  the  States,  from 
1861  to  1865,  was  waged  by  the  North  to  preserve 
the  Union,  the  men  in  the  North  who  desired  to 
abolish  slavery  at  all  hazards  were  the  first  internal 
foes  of  the  Union;  and  the  Southern  men,  who 
wished  to  preserve  the  Union,  in  accordance  with 
their  interpretation  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  plac- 
ing local  self  government  above  the  idea  of  Union, 
were  none  the  less  patriotic  and  well-based  in  their 
belief  that  they  possessed  the  constitutional  right 
to  secede. 

The  great  political  storm  was  every^vhere  gather- 
ing head.  The  annexation  of  Texas,  over  which 
shone  like  a  star  the  heroic  and  splendid  story  of  the 
Alamo;  the  great  question  of  slavery, — an  institu- 
tion which  the  civilized  world  had  come  at  last  to 
condemn;    the  tariff  question,  which  had  agitated 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     71 

the  Nation  and  the  States  since  the  States  had  made 
the  Nation;  the  Oregon  boundary  Hne,  a  burning 
phase  of  the  slavery  question — these  were  the  things 
that  fevered  the  States,  and  that  stirred  Massachu- 
setts, and  that  stirred,  too.  Harvard  College  and  its 
intellectual  youth. 

Bliss  it  was  in  that  dawn  to  be  alive. 
But  to  be  young  was  heaven. 

The  Whigs  nominated  Clay  and  Frelinghuysen. 
The  acclaim  rang  throughout  the  Union: — 

Hurrah,  boys!     The  country's  risin'! 
Henry  Clay  and  Frelinghuysen! 

But  the  country  did  not  rise  that  way.  "Polk, 
Dallas  and  Texas,"  was  the  antiphonal  war-cry  of 
the  Democrats;  and  the  Democrats  won.  But  in 
the  meantime,  with  persistent  and  unwavering  and 
almost  unnoted  obstinacy,  the  abolitionists  of  the 
Liberator  type,  under  the  leadership  of  Birney,  and 
Phillips  and  Garrison,  were  gathering  strength  and 
momentum. 

"Prior  to  the  Whig  nominations,"  writes  Curry  of  the 
times,  "T  heard  Sergeant  S.  Prentiss  of  Mississippi,  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  men  in  America,  make  a  speech  to  a 
packed  audience  in  Faneuil  Hall.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
thrilling  specimens  of  platform  oratory  I  ever  listened  to; 
and  he  carried  his  audience  at  pleasure.  In  the  same  hall  I 
heard  Vice-President  Richard  M.  Johnson,  a  weak  but 
honest  old  man,  whose  claim  to  popular  support  seemed  to 
be  based  on  a  red-jacket,  and  the  fact  (of  doubtful  histori- 
cal authenticity),  that  he  killed  Tecumseh.  Being  fond  of 
politics  I  used  to  attend  many  political  meetings  of  all  the 
parties.  Among  Democrats,  I  heard  Senator  Levi  Wood- 
bury, afterwards  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court;  Charles 


72       J.  L.  M.  CUBEY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

G.  Greene,  editor  of  the  Boston  Post;  George  Bancroft,  the 
historian;  Orestes  A.  Brownson,  since  quite  famous  as  edi- 
tor of  Brownson's  Review.  ...  I  heard  Daniel  Web- 
ster several  times.  In  appearance  he  was  the  most  marked 
man  I  ever  saw.  In  speaking,  whether  in  Faneuil  Hall  or 
on  Boston  Common,  before  immense  and  enthusiastic  as- 
semblages, he  was  unimpassioned  and  calm.  It  was  more 
than  suspected  that  he  did  not  regard  the  nomination  of 
Mr.  Clay  with  favor.  I  heard  also  John  M.  Berrien  of 
Georgia,  Miller  of  New  Jersey,  and  Morse  of  Maine.  The 
leading  managing  democrat  was  B.  F.  Hallett.  Benjamin 
F.  Butler,  so  famous  since  as  'Beast  Butler,'  was  an  active 
democrat.  Charles  Sumner  was  then  a  literary  lawyer,  a 
favorite  of  Judge  Story;  but  not  actively  connected  with 
politics." 

In  1894,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  he  gave  a 
further  account  of  his  recollections  of  Mr.  Webster: — 

Washington,  D.  C,  1736  M  Street, 

1  Jan.,  1894. 

Dear  Mr.  Winthrop: — Yesterday  your  welcome  letter 
of  the  28th  came,  and  I  procured  Scribner,  which  is  not  on 
our  not  too  long  list  of  periodicals,  in  order  to  read  your  ar- 
ticle on  Webster.  It  is  very  interesting  and  instructive, 
and  the  reception  you  speak  of  is  cumulative  in  enforce- 
ment of  the  suggestion  so  frequently  pressed  upon  you,  to 
call  in  a  stenographer,  and  give  autobiographical  mem- 
oranda, in  more  connected  form  than  is  found  in  numerous 
publications,  for  the  delight  of  your  wide  circle  of  friends 
in  Europe  and  America.  A  little  article  on  your  student 
life  in  Mr.  Webster's  office  would  be  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  a  magazine. 

The  reply  to  Hayne,  for  vigorous  English,  for  felicity  of 
illustration,  for  impassioned  eloquence,  is  unsurpassed  in 
American  oratory.  Of  course  I  am  not  expected  to  concur 
in  the  general  and  unchangeable  popular  verdict  in  refer- 


HAEVAED  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     73 

ence  to  constitutional  interpretation,  or  logical  conclusive- 
ness. 

In  1844  I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  Mr.  Webster 
twice,  once  in  Faneuil  Hall,  when  he  addressed  a  meeting 
held  to  ratify  Mr.  Clay's  nomination  for  the  Presidency; 
and  a  second  time,  when  he  presided  over  an  immense 
meeting,  held  on  Boston  Common.  I  was  a  mere  boy,  not 
unfamiliar  with  Prentiss,  Hillard,  Bowden,  Yancey;  but  I 
could  not  help  wondering  at  the  great  fame  of  Mr.  W.,  as 
an  orator.  The  closing  sentences  of  the  Scrihner  article, 
taken  from  your  Central  Park  address,  express  my  esti- 
mate of  and  admiration  for  the  man;  but,  judging  from  the 
two  occasions  when  I  heard  him,  his  was  not  the  eloquence 
that  moved  assemblies.  Slow  of  utterance,  deliberate  in 
manner,  measuring  his  words,  strong  and  almost  faultless 
in  diction,  profound  in  his  reasoning,  his  influence,  it 
seemed  to  me,  was  from  matter  rather  than  manner,  from 
weight  of  thought  rather  than  capacity  to  arouse  emotion. 
His  presence  was  more  majestic,  more  commanding,  than 
that  of  any  man  I  ever  saw,  and  the  epithet  "godlike" 
was  better  adapted.  It  seemed  to  me,  an  inexperienced 
youth,  when  I  stood  near  the  platform  on  Boston  Com- 
mon, that  any  child  of  ten  years  of  age  would  not  have  hesi- 
tated instantaneously  to  select  him  from  the  thirty  thou- 
sand as  incomparably  the  greatest  intellect.  Mr.  Everett 
I  never  saw  nor  heard.  Mr.  Choate  I  heard  frequently; 
John  Quincy  Adams  once,  and  Bancroft,  Brownson, 
Woodbury  several  times. 

Among  other  orators  of  the  period  and  vicinage 
to  whom  he  listened  in  his  student  days  at  Harvard 
were  Dr.  Edward  Amasa  Park,  then  professor  of 
sacred  rhetoric  in  Andover  Seminary,  an  "exponent 
of  the  doctrines  that  are  embodied  in  the  Andover 
Creed  and  called  the  New  England  system  of  theol- 
ogy";  George  Stillman  Hillard,  lawyer,  author  and 


74        J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

orator;  Frederick  Douglass  and  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  the  negro  and  the  white  abolitionist 
agitators;  and  Robert  Rantoul,  Jr.,  whose  contem- 
porary fame  throughout  the  country  as  an  orator  of 
unusual  and  powerful  eloquence,  as  an  able  and  per- 
sistent antagonist  of  protection  and  centralization 
in  the  Federal  government,  and  as  an  advocate  of 
educational  reforms,  has  in  the  lapse  of  time,  save 
in  his  own  section,  long  since  become  only  a  memory 
and  a  name. 

It  may  be  well  imagined  that  Curry's  time  was 
full.  Law  studies,  politics,  pulpit  orators,  great 
actors,  and  new  and  inspiring  associations  in  many 
directions  gave  him  much  to  think  of  and  to  do. 
Yet  with  it  all,  he  found  the  leisure  which  an  in- 
dustrious and  busy  man  can  always  find  for  some 
other  yet  desirable  work;  and  nearly  every  week  he 
wrote  for  publication  over  the  signature  of  ''Ion," 
and  sent  to  a  paper  in  Tuscaloosa,  letters  on  various 
subjects,  but  dealing  largely  with  the  subject  of  con- 
temporary politics,  and  the  actors  in  the  great 
political  drama,  whose  earlier  scenes  were  then  begin- 
ning to  be  first  presented  upon  the  stage  of  history. 

Not  the  least  among  the  broadening  forces  that 
were  thus  entering  the  young  man's  life,  and  shaping 
his  character  and  career,  was  one  which  came  finally 
to  dominate  his  very  being  and  to  consecrate  his 
highest  energies.  Horace  Mann,  and  his  work  for 
education,  enlisted  at  this  time  Curry's  attention 
and  interest,  and  thenceforward  exercised  upon  him 
a  strong  and  vital  influence. 

It  is  illustrative  of  Curry's  breadth  of  view,  and 
tolerance  of  adverse  opinion  on  the  part  of  others, 
that  although  he  was  even  then  modelling  his  politi- 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     75 

cal  thought  after  that  of  Calhoun;  and  although 
Horace  Mann  was  conspicuous  among  the  anti-slav- 
ery agitators  in  politics,  the  young  Harvard  student 
did  not  permit  the  prejudice  of  partisanship  to 
obscure  his  vision  of  Mann's  great  educational 
ideas. 

"Under  a  full  sense  of  my  responsibility — to  my  coun- 
try and  my  God,"  said  Mann  on  the  floor  of  Congress  some 
years  later,  "I  deliberately  say,  better  disunion — better  a 
civil  or  a  servile  war, — better  anything  that  God  in  his 
providence  shall  send, — than  an  extension  of  the  bounds 
of  slavery." 

War  came;  and  Curry  bore  arms  in  defence  of  the 
principles  upon  which  he  conceived  the  Union  to 
have  been  founded,  involving  among  others  the 
principle  of  local  self-government  on  the  part  of 
the  States  with  reference  to  African  slavery.  Near 
the  close  of  a  long  life,  and  after  a  generation  and 
more  spent  in  the  service  of  education  in  the  South, 
he  paid  the  tribute  of  his  faith  and  admiration  to  the 
elder  educator  of  the  North: — 

When  I  was  in  Cambridge  there  occurred  the  cele- 
brated controversy,  since  historic,  between  Horace  Mann 
and  the  thirty-one  Boston  teachers.  Mann's  glowing 
periods,  earnest  enthusiasm  and  democratic  ideas  fired 
my  young  mind  and  heart;  and  since  that  time  I  have 
been  an  enthusiastic  and  consistent  advocate  of  universal 
education. 

The  value  of  a  great  man  lies  in  his  power  to 
raise  up  imitators  and  disciples. 

Henry  Bernard  in  the  East  and  Curry  in  the 
South  almost  share  with  Mann  the  honor  of  having 
led  the  movement  for  popular  education  and  peda- 


76       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

gogic  reform    in    this   country    in    the    nineteenth 
century. 

"In  1847,  after  my  return  to  Alabama,  as  a  candidate  for 
and  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  I  spoke  for  free  schools 
and  voted  for  every  proposition  looking  to  the  endowment 
of  the  State  University.  In  1853  and  1855  I  was  again  a 
representative  from  Talladega  County,  and  as  a  member 
of  the  Committee  on  Education  sustained  Judge  Meek's 
bill,  which  became  the  first  law  on  the  statute  book  estab- 
lishing public  schools." 

Meek's  name,  which  is  better  remembered  among 
lawyers  as  that  of  an  eminent  and  cultivated  jurist, 
and  in  the  literary  world  as  the  author  of  "Red 
Eagle,"  an  epic  poem  which  embodies  the  romantic 
story  of  Weatherford,  the  Indian  chief,  is  deserving 
of  commemoration  for  his  origination  of  the  system 
of  public  education  in  Alabama  in  1853,  long  before 
it  had  come  in  many  other  Southern  States  of  the 
American  Union. 

Among  Curry's  fellows  in  the  Dane  Law  School 
has  already  been  mentioned  Rutherford  B.  Hayes, 
who  succeeded  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States 
in  1877  under  circumstances  that  threatened  repub- 
lican institutions  in  their  consideration  and  solution. 
Of  Mr.  Hayes'  relation  and  attitude  towards  the 
contest  for  the  Presidency,  and  the  famous  Electoral 
Commission,  he  has  himself  made  a  record  in  his  let- 
ter to  Senator  Sherman,  dated  Columbus,  Ohio,  27 
November,    1876: — 

You  feel,  I  am  sure,  as  I  do  about  this  whole  business, 
A  fair  election  would  have  given  us  about  forty  electoral 
votes  at  the  South, — at  least  that  many.  But  we  are  not  to 
allow  our  friends  to  defeat  one  outrage  and  fraud  by  an- 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     77 

other.  There  must  be  nothing  crooked  on  our  part.  Let 
Mr.  Tilden  have  the  place  by  violence,  intimidation,  and 
fraud,  rather  than  undertake  to  prevent  it  by  means  that 
will  not  bear  the  closest  scrutiny. 

Curry,  in  the  year  of  the  Hayes-Tilden  election, 
wrote  of  Mr.  Hayes : — 

Hayes,  three  or  four  years  my  senior,  boarded  in  the 
same  home  with  myself,  and  we  were  quite  intimate.  He 
was  a  "good  fellow,"  studious  and  upright,  but  not  spe- 
cially promising.  To  human  appearance  then  my  prospect 
for  the  Presidency  was  equal  to  his. 

The  following  rather  naive  entry  in  his  diary, 
reminiscent  of  the  days  at  Harvard,  is  characteris- 
tic of  the  man  of  later  years,  who  always  recognized 
the  value  of  personal  appearance  and  demeanor;  and 
who  exemplified  in  his  own  person  the  attractiveness 
of  dress,  and  the  polish  of  the  best  social  life : 

I  did  not  visit  any  ladies  while  I  was  at  the  Law  School; 
but  for  a  time  I  attended  a  dancing-school,  and  became 
quite  fond  of  the  amusement. 

The  sacrifice  of  not  visiting  the  ladies,  which  had 
finally  given  him  such  pleasure  when  at  Athens,  is 
easily  attributable  to  the  seriousness  of  his  purpose 
at  Harvard;  and  it  may  very  well  be  imagined  of  him 
that  even  from  attendance  upon  the  dancing-school 
ambition  was  not  altogether  absent. 

He  had  matriculated  in  the  Dane  Law  School, 
September  13,  1843.  In  February,  1845,  he  received 
his  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Laws;  and  set  his  face 
homeward  in  the  same  month.  He  stopped  at  vari- 
ous places  on  his  journey  back  to  Alabama;  and  has 
recorded,  in  connection  with  these  pauses  by  the  way, 
an  occasional  interesting  incident. 


78       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Dixon  H.  Lewis,  who  Curry  says  was  'Hhe  heavi- 
est man  he  ever  saw,"  was  then  in  Washington  as  a 
Senator  from  Alabama.  He  was  a  friend  of  William 
Curry's,  and  learning  of  young  Curry's  journey 
homeward,  wrote  him  a  letter  inviting  him  to  visit 
the  national  capitol.  In  response  to  this  agreeable 
invitation,  Curry  spent  a  week  in  Washington  on  his 
way  home,  as  the  guest  of  Senator  Lewis,  and  there- 
fore under  most  agreeable  and  advantageous  aus- 
pices. 

"The  annexation  of  Texas  was  under  discussion  in  the 
Senate,"  he  records  of  this  visit,  "and  I  heard  a  number  of 
speeches.  I  remember  to  have  heard  Hannigan  of  In- 
diana, and  Allen,  the  present  (1876)  Governor  of  Ohio. 
Mr.  Lewis  took  me  to  see  John  C.  Calhoun,  who  was  then 
Secretary  of  State.  A  number  of  persons  were  in  his  room, 
among  them  'Mike  Walsh,'  a  'subterranean'  politician 
from  New  York,  who  would  now  be  called  a  boss,  a  leader 
of  the  working  men,  who  was  afterwards  elected  to  Con- 
gress. Mr.  Calhoun  was  a  brilliant  talker,  rapid,  sugges- 
tive, profound.  He  was  then  in  his  sixty-second  year.  His 
burning  eyes,  prophetic  face  and  lofty  mien  gave  him  the 
look  of  a  chieftain  around  whom  men  would  gladly  rally. 
He  received  me  very  kindly,  as  he  was  very  fond  of  the 
company  of  young  men.  He  was  giving  a  sketch  of  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  as  an  adroit  politician,  a  manipulator  of  con- 
ventions, and  unsound  on  the  tariff  question.  This  was 
my  only  interview  with  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  I  prize  the  recol- 
lection of  it.  In  all  my  political  career  I  was  an  adherent 
of  the  Calhoun  school  of  politics.  I  was  very  familiar  with 
his  writings,  and  I  now  regard  him  as  no  whit  inferior  to 
Aristotle,  Burke,  Bismarck,  Cavour,  Gladstone,  or  any 
statesman  or  publicist  that  ever  lived." 

This  is  high  praise  of  Calhoun  coming  from  a  man 
of  Curry's  breadth  of  view  and  large-mindedness,  es- 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     79 

pecially  in  the  light  of  events  through  which  he  sub- 
sequently passed  that  shattered  most  of  Calhoun's 
political  ideals.  But  it  was  a  deliberate  judgment 
and  an  interesting  testimony  to  the  commanding  in- 
fluence exerted  by  Calhoun  in  this  epoch  of  Ameri- 
can life. 

Among  other  noted  men  whom  Curry  met  during 
his  week's  sojourn  with  Mr.  Lewis  in  Congress,  were 
George  McDuffie  of  South  Carolina,  William  Henry 
Haywood  of  North  Carolina,  and  Thomas  H.  Benton 
of  Missouri,  all  three  of  whom  were  then  Senators 
from  their  respective  States.  He  witnessed  the  in- 
auguration of  James  K.  Polk,  the  democrat  who  had 
been  elected  in  an  exciting  campaign  over  his  Whig 
competitor,  Henry  Clay,  and  the  induction  into 
office  of  the  vice-president,  George  M.  Dallas.  He 
disposes  of  Dallas  with  the  remark,  ''He  wore  long 
silvery  hair  and  was  a  graceful  elocutionist."  The 
new  President,  a  native  of  North  Carolina  and  a  citi- 
zen of  Tennessee,  in  his  inaugural  address  arrested 
the  young  man's  attention  with  his  tribute  to  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union. 

To  perpetuate  them,  it  is  our  sacred  duty  to  preserve 
the  Union.  Who  shall  assign  limits  to  the  achievements  of 
free  minds  and  free  hands  under  the  protection  of  this 
glorious  Union?  No  treason  to  mankind  since  the  organiza- 
tion of  society,  would  be  equal  in  atrocity  to  that  of  him 
who  would  lift  his  hand  to  destroy  it.  He  would  over- 
throw the  noblest  structure  of  human  wisdom  which  pro- 
tects himself  and  his  fellow  men.  He  would  stop  the  prog- 
ress of  free  government  and  involve  his  country  either  in 
anarchy  or  in  despotism. 

This  was  sound  doctrine  to  this  twenty-year-old 
boy  over  whom  Calhoun's  compelling  presence  and 


80       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

great  fame  had  cast  their  spell,  and  it  found  lodgment 
not  alone  in  his  mind,  but  went  to  his  heart,  and  be- 
came a  part  of  his  life. 

Travelling  home  from  Washington  with  Senator 
W.  T.  Colquitt  and  two  of  his  daughters  as  compan- 
ions, the  party  went  by  rail  to  Covington,  Georgia, 
and  there  took  a  stage.  At  Franklin,  Alabama, 
Curry  again  took  up  his  journey  alone  by  rail  to 
Montgomery,  whence  he  travelled  in  a  two-horse 
hack  to  Talladega.  The  young  Alabamian  reached 
home  in  an  exalted  state  of  mind,  for  he  had  travelled 
much  and  seen  much  of  men  and  cities.  He  had 
touched  hands  with  his  political  heroes  at  the  na- 
tional capitol,  and  had  heard  presidents  speak  and 
hobnobbed  with  Senators  and  felt  the  impulse  of  the 
time  at  the  very  center  of  things.  His  year  and  one- 
half  at  Harvard  and  in  New  England  had  been, 
indeed,  a  vivid  and  crucial  year,  and  doubtless  had 
developed  habits  of  mind  and  points  of  view  which 
unconsciously  moulded  much  of  his  after  life.  It  is 
not  far-fetched  to  fancy  that  from  this  tutelage  came 
no  little  of  his  subsequent  aptitude  for  interpretation, 
instinct  for  cosmopolitanism,  contempt  for  intel- 
lectual violence  and  respect  for  the  other  man,  even 
if  he  rejected  the  other  man's  opinion  as  he  had 
rejected  most  of  the  current  New  England  dogmas. 
Curry's  nature  was  fiery  and  assertive,  until  suffer- 
ing tempered  his  spirit,  but  he  managed,  under  the 
most  adverse  conditions,  to  escape  the  blight  of 
provincialism  and  to  hold  a  place  as  a  citizen  of  the 
world.  New  England,  itself,  at  this  time,  was 
boundlessly  and  aggressively  provincial,  but  the 
experience  of  trying  to  understand  other  conditions 
and  to  do  justice  to  other  temperaments — something 


HARVARD  AND  N.  E.  INFLUENCES     81 

perhaps  of  the  high-mindedness  and  detachment  in 
the  "quiet  and  still  air"  about  the  ancient  seminary 
of  learning,  helped  to  free  his  mobile  brain  and  ready 
sympathy  from  the  shackles  of  crude  thinking  and 
rough  obstinacy.  It  would  have  been  helpful  to 
the  larger  good  if  some  of  the  young  Sumners  and 
Boutwells  of  the  period  in  New  England  could  have 
come  South  for  a  part  of  their  education,  and  thus 
gained  first-hand  knowledge  and  perhaps  intelligent 
sympathy  with  a  people  whose  destinies  they  were 
to  affect  profoundly,  but  about  whom  they  knew 
very  little,  and — most  tragic  of  all  ignorances — did 
not  know  that  they  did  not  know. 


CHAPTER  V 

LAW   AND   LEGISLATION 

The  years  1845  and  1846  were  swift  fateful  years 
in  the  life  of  the  virile  young  republic.  It  was  just 
entering  upon  its  first  aggressive  and  foreign  war. 
The  empire  of  Texas  was  received  without  precedent 
directly  into  statehood  without  a  preliminary  and 
preparatory  period  in  territorial  status.  Sinister 
motives  were  attributed  in  this  annex  to  the  friends 
of  slavery;  and  the  swift  enactment  of  statutes,  pass- 
ing of  resolutions  in  Congress,  and  movement  of 
armies  in  the  field,  showed  how  tense  the  matter 
was  and  how  bound  up  with  the  supreme  question 
of  public  policy  vexing  the  allied  states.  Annexa- 
tion would  unquestionably  strengthen  the  slave 
power,  but  the  spirit  of  expansion  was  abroad  as  it 
was  in  1898  when  the  explosion  of  a  powder  magazine 
in  a  warship  in  Cuban  waters  set  a  nation  irresistibly 
toward  war.  Men  rejoiced  in  the  ability  of  the 
United  States  to  "lick  all  creation,"  and  a  certain 
youthful  boasting  and  indulgence  in  superlatives 
ruled  in  common  talk  throughout  the  land. 

For  young  Curry,  down  in  Alabama,  the  years 
were  fallow,  preparatory  years,  during  which  the 
gifted,  well  born,  well  educated  young  man  was  get- 
ting ready  for  participation  in  great  affairs.  Accord- 
ing to  the  custom  of  the  day,  he  was  reading  law  in 
the  office  of  a  local  lawyer,  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Rice. 

82 


LAW   AND   LEGISLATION  83 

"At  Talladega,  I  boarded,"  he  writes,  ''with  Mr. 
Rice;  and  William  W.  Knox  and  I  used  to  go  home 
only  six  miles  nearly  every  Saturday  night.  While 
reading  law,  I  wrote  editorials  for  the  'Watchtower,' 
visited  the  ladies,  attended  a  debating  society  and 
made  many  friends  and  acquaintances  in  the  coun- 
try." These  were  useful  but  innocuous  occupations 
which  could,  by  no  chance,  do  him  any  harm,  and 
which  assure  us  that  the  much  travelled  collegian 
was  not  out  of  touch  with  other  normal  stay-at-home 
young  men  in  that  southwestern  country.  In  1846 
he  tendered  his  services  to  the  government  as  a 
soldier  in  the  war  with  Mexico,  but  his  attempt  at 
soldiering  proved  abortive. 

With  his  eye  on  politics,  he  saw  two  questions, 
both  settled  affirmatively,  as  the  principal  issues 
of  the  state  election;  "biennial  sessions  of  the 
legislature  and  the  removal  of  the  capitol  from 
Tuscaloosa."  Hon.  Frankhn  W.  Bowdon,  after- 
wards a  representative  in  Congress  from  the  district, 
was  a  representative  from  Talladega  County,  and 
a  leader  in  the  legislature  in  carrying  the  two  meas- 
ures. The  capitol  was  removed  to  Montgomery, 
the  city  and  county  furnishing  the  building  free  of 
cost. 

Early  in  1846  it  became  apparent  that  the  adjustment 
of  the  boundary  line  between  Texas  and  Mexico  would 
lead  to  war.  A  fierce  controversy  arose  between  the  Whig 
and  Democratic  parties  as  to  the  responsibility  for  the 
war.  The  act  of  Congress  for  raising  troops  said  that  war 
existed  by  act  of  Mexico.  .  .  .  The  war  was  popular, 
and  volunteers  were  numerous  and  enthusiastic.  In  May, 
1846,  a  company  of  infantry  was  raised  in  Talladega 
County.    Jacob  D.  Shelley  was  captain.    I  was  appointed 


84       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

second  sergeant.  Several  meetings  were  held,  and  I  made 
a  number  of  speeches,  in  one  of  which  I  warned  the  people 
against  the  folly  of  believing  that  Mexico  could  be  con- 
quered in  a  few  months,  as  the  Spaniards  were  proverbi- 
ally obstinate  and  resolute. 

We  marched  from  Talladega  to  Wetumpka,  where  we 
embarked  on  a  boat  for  Mobile.  At  various  points  recep- 
tions were  given,  and  I  had  to  make  speeches.  We  went 
into  camp  at  Mobile.  After  annoying  delays,  we  were, 
with  other  companies,  organized  into  a  regiment,  and 
mustered  in  for  six  months.  Then  the  War  Department 
refused  to  accept  us  for  that  period  of  service,  and  we  were 
discharged. 

The  bulk  of  the  company  re-enlisted  for  twelve  months. 
It  being  uncertain  when  the  troops  would  be  ordered  to 
the  scene  of  war,  five  of  us,  Andrew  W.  Bowie,  James 
Montgomery,  William  P.  Bowden,  Dr.  C.  G.  Cunningham 
and  myself,  in  a  most  foolhardy  spirit,  resolved  to  go  to 
the  army  on  our  own  charges.  A  small  schooner,  the 
Duane  (a  former  revenue  cutter,  discharged  for  unsea- 
worthiness) was  in  the  port  of  Mobile,  loading  with  sup- 
plies. .  .  .  We  engaged  passage  and  shipped  for  Point 
Isabel,  against  the  advice  and  protest  of  friends.  To  us  it 
seemed  a  dashing,  gallant  thing,  and  we  enjoyed  by  antici- 
pation, the  frolic.  The  second  day  out  I  became  sick,  and 
so  continued  for  twelve  days.  My  weight  then  was  not 
more  than  one  hundred  and  twelve  pounds.  Two  days  we 
were  becalmed,  and  under  a  hot  vertical  sun  we  fished  and 
read  and  played  cards,  and  indulged  in  day  dreams.  Then 
came  a  terrific  storm,  the  worst  I  ever  saw,  and  our  frail 
barque  seemed  every  moment  as  if  it  would  sink.  The 
captain  was  skillful.  When  we  reached  the  bar  at  Point 
Isabel,  the  vessel  leaked  rapidly,  and  the  pumps  were  used 
incessantly.  By  means  of  a  pilotboat,  to  get  into  which  we 
ran  a  narrow  risk  of  being  drowned,  we  were,  with  our 
luggage,  transported  to  shore.  We  bade  a  ready  adieu  to 
the  Duane,  which  two  days  afterwards  sank  in  the  harbor. 


LAW   AND   LEGISLATION  85 

The  day  after  landing  we  made  our  way  to  a  regiment  of 
Texas  Rangers,  Jack  Hays,  colonel;  Ben  McCulloch,  lieu- 
tenant-colonel; Chevallier,  major;  and  attached  ourselves 
to  a  company  commanded  by  Captain  Acklere.  We  were 
not  formally  mustered  into  service. 

On  the  fourth  of  July  there  was  a  celebration.  Ashbel 
Smith,  who  had  been  minister  from  Texas  to  France,  made 
a  speech;  and  so  did  I. 

We  remained  in  camp  a  week  or  more,  when  Dr.  Cun- 
ningham became  dangerously  ill,  and  was  ordered  to  be 
sent  home.  An  attendant  being  required,  as  I  was  the 
least,  the  youngest,  and  very  feeble,  I  was  selected;  and 
unwillingly  I  became  the  companion  of  the  sick,  hoping, 
however,  to  return  to  Mexico. 

It  was  a  command,  whose  officers  and  men  alike 
saw  gallant  and  conspicuous  service  in  the  Mexican 
War;  being  genuine  soldiers  and  fighting  folks.  Es- 
pecially picturesque  was  the  figure  of  Ben  McCul- 
loch, the  lieutenant-colonel,  who  had  just  missed 
joining  Crockett  by  the  merest  accident,  when  the 
latter  had  set  out  on  the  journey  that  closed  with  his 
life  at  the  ill-fated  Alamo;  who  had  handled  a  gun 
under  Sam  Houston  in  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto; 
and  who  had  served  in  the  Congress  of  the  young 
republic  of  Texas ;  and  had  been  shot  in  the  arm  in  a 
duel  with  Reuben  Davis  of  Mississippi.  McCulloch 
rendered  courageous  service  in  the  Mexican  War, 
and  after  its  close  went  with  the  'Forty-Niners  to 
California,  where  he  illustrated  for  a  while  in  his 
person  as  sheriff  of  Sacramento  County  the  glowing 
verity  of  Bret  Harte's  later  ''Tales  of  the  Argonauts." 
He  came  back  to  the  East  in  1853,  and  was  killed  in 
battle  as  a  brigadier-general  in  the  service  of  the 
Confederacy. 


86       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

When  Curry  reached  Talladega  Dr.  Cunningham 
was  much  improved;  but  the  psychological  moment 
for  a  return  to  the  Mexican  War  did  not  recur,  and  he 
resumed  his  reading  of  law  in  Mr.  Rice's  office. 

"During  the  year,"  he  says,  "after  a  long  and  severe 
examination  by  Hon.  George  W.  Stone,  a  circuit  judge,  I 
was  admitted  to  the  bar,  with  all  the  privileges  and  duties 
of  a  lawyer." 

In  1847  he  was  busy  with  pohtics.  During  1848 
and  1849  he  practiced  his  profession  with  assiduity 
and  apparent  success;  for  in  the  latter  year  he  was 
sohcitor  of  Tallapoosa  County  and  had,  among 
others,  one  or  two  murder  cases.  But  the  routine  of 
law-practice  did  not  appeal  to  him;  and,  indeed,  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  he  had  intended  its  prac- 
tice from  the  beginning,  as  did  so  many  of  the  young 
disciples  of  Coke  in  the  South  of  the  earlier  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  as  a  mere  means  of  entrance  to 
the  more  alluring  and  larger  field  of  politics.  In  1850 
he  abandoned  the  practice  of  law,  and  settled  upon  a 
plantation  on  Salt  Creek  in  Talladega  County,  that 
had  been  given  him  by  his  father. 

"Although  brought  up  on  a  farm,"  he  says  of  himself  at 
this  time,  "I  knew  little  practically  of  agriculture;  and 
while  fond  of  the  country,  my  tastes  did  not  lie  in  the  di- 
rection of  making  corn  and  cotton.  My  farming,  being 
entrusted  largely  to  negroes,  was  not  profitable.  I  was 
economical  and  never  went  into  debt.  I  preferred  books 
to  overseeing  negroes." 

This  little  bit  of  self-analysis  displays  quite  clearly 
Curry's  real  tendencies  and  ambitions.  The  drudg- 
ery and  hard  dry  exactions  of  that  jealous  mistress 
the  law  certainly  did  not  appeal  to  him.    Tilling  the 


LAW    AND   LEGISLATION  87 

soil  was  clearly  obnoxious  to  his  tastes.  Even  at 
that  early  date  the  real  man  stood  revealed.  The 
strongest  impulses  of  his  nature  were  oratorical  and 
didactic.  He  not  only  felt  the  capacity  and  the 
genius  to  move  his  fellows  by  speech,  but  he  had  a 
vehement  longing  to  get  up  and  convince  everybody 
in  sight  to  his  way  of  thinking.  As  Walter  Bagehot 
observed  of  Gladstone,  he  had  a  nature  towards  his 
audience.  He  was  sure  that  if  they  only  knew  what 
he  knew  they  would  feel  as  he  felt  and  believe  as  he 
believed.  If  the  cause  were  moral  his  enthusiasms 
increased  tenfold,  and  to  the  oratorical  and  didactic 
impulses  were  added  immediately  the  dramatic  and 
contentious  impulses.  Politics  attracted  him  in  the 
mid-century  period  because  the  issues  of  the  time 
were  moral  and  deeply  based  on  principles  and  en- 
thusiasms and  deep  loyalties.  The  pulpit  attracted 
him  in  the  sad  days  of  reconstruction  when  character 
and  integrity  and  spiritual  steadfastness  seemed  the 
only  stable  things  in  a  tumbled-down  world;  and  the 
platform  attracted  him  later  on  when  the  sun  broke 
through  the  clouds  of  the  dreary  time  and  he  caught 
the  hopeful  vision  of  a  land  made  over  in  the  strength 
of  a  new  generation  trained  to  new  duties  and  new 
occasions. 

In  the  meantime,  in  July,  1847,  he  became  a  can- 
didate for  the  office  of  representative  in  the  Alabama 
Legislature.  He  was  now  well  launched  upon  a  po- 
litical career,  which  was  congenial  to  his  tastes,  and 
not  antagonistic  to  his  studies  and  his  habits  of 
mind,  and  in  which  he  was  destined  to  become  dis- 
tinguished. In  the  spring  of  this  year  he  had  served 
as  secretary  of  the  State  Democratic  Convention  at 
Montgomery,  which  nominated  Reuben  Chapman 


88       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

for  governor.  His  services  had  already  come  to  be  in 
great  demand  as  a  public  speaker  and  the  eyes  of  the 
democratic  leaders  of  the  State  were  fixed  upon  him. 
In  regard  to  his  skill  and  success  as  a  speaker,  he 
modestly  writes  of  himself  at  this  time : 

My  small  size  and  youthful  appearance  and  the  popu- 
larity of  my  father  gave  me  advantages  over  my  competi- 
tors. We  had  appointments  at  various  places,  and  made 
public  speeches.  I  had  some  fluency  and  success  as  a 
speaker. 

The  burning  political  question  of  the  day  was  that 
of  slavery  in  the  Territories;  and  especially  with  re- 
gard to  the  Wilmot  proviso,  a  measure  that  had  been 
introduced  into  the  United  States  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives by  Mr.  Wilmot  of  Pennsylvania,  on  be- 
half of  many  northern  Democrats,  applying  to  the 
territory  proposed  to  be  acquired  from  Mexico  in  the 
settlement  of  the  war  by  negotiation,  the  provision 
of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  which  later  came  to  be 
the  language  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  that 
''neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall 
ever  exist  in  any  part  of  said  territory  except  for 
crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  first  be  duly  con- 
victed." The  Whigs  and  the  northern  Democrats 
united  in  favor  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  in  the  Na- 
tional House  of  Representatives,  and  it  had  passed 
the  House  in  the  preceding  year,  but  went  to  the 
Senate  too  late  to  be  acted  upon. 

The  introduction  and  discussion  of  the  Wilmot 
proviso  aroused  a  crisis  of  passions  upon  the  slav- 
ery question;  and  the  spectre,  which  the  prophetic 
imagination  of  Mr.  Jefferson  had  long  before  con- 
jured up,  upon  the  passage  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 


LAW   AND   LEGISLATION  89 

mise  Act,  of  a  division  of  the  country  upon  sectional 
lines, — a  vision  that  ''alarmed  him  like  a  firebell  in 
the  night," — now  presented  itself,  not  as  the  unsub- 
stantial pageant  of  a  dream,  but  as  a  terrible  reality. 
Upon  this  imminent  question  Curry  took  no  un- 
certain stand.  A  letter  written  by  him  in  that  year, 
on  the  threshold  of  his  political  career,  attests  from  its 
age-yellowed  pages  the  sincerity  of  his  convictions, 
and  the  lofty  courage  of  his  purpose : — 

Mr.  James  H.  Joiner, 

Dear  Sir: — A  report,  prejudicial  to  my  success,  has  been 
in  circulation  in  the  lower  end  of  the  county,  that  I  am 
in  favor  of  a  property  qualification  for  voters.  It  is 
false. 

My  position  in  reference  to  General  Taylor  is  misunder- 
stood. The  perilous  exigency  of  the  times  demands  a 
president  who  will  resist  all  interference  by  the  general 
government  with  our  domestic  institutions.  This  dis- 
crimination, recognized  and  adopted  in  the  Wilmot  Pro- 
viso, is  degrading  to  the  South,  and  all  freemen  must  feel 
that  "death  is  preferable  to  acknowledged  inferiority." 
To  resist  the  effort  which  will  be  made  to  prohibit  slavery 
in  the  territory  to  be  acquired  from  Mexico  (as  just  in- 
demnity for  the  expenses  of  this  war,  the  spoliations  of  our 
commerce,  and  injuries  done  to  our  citizens,  which  would 
have  justified  a  declaration  of  war  many  years  ago),  it 
becomes  our  duty  to  take  "firm,  united  and  concerted 
action." 

The  South  can  never  support  any  man  for  President 
who  is  not  sound  on  this  paramount  and  controlling  ques- 
tion. Their  support  of  any  man  would  be  idle,  except  as 
necessary  to  his  success.  Then  some  man  must  be  selected 
who  has  popularity, — upon  whom  all  parties  at  the  South 
can  unite.  General  Taylor,  I  think,  is  that  man.  The 
West  is  not  quite  thoroughly  corrupted  on  the  slavery 


90       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

question;  and  enough  of  them  might  go  with  us  to  secure 
his  election. 

General  Taylor,  I  have  no  doubt,  is  a  freetrade  man. 
If  he  runs  as  a  rabid,  partisan  Whig,  determined  to  ad- 
vance Whig  measures,  without  testing  the  measures,  the 
success  of  which  under  Mr.  Polk's  administration  has  made 
his  name  illustrious  and  immortal,  I  would  hesitate  long. 
The  real  issue  should  be  decisively  and  determinately 
made  up,  before  I  could  give  him  my  humble  support. 

I  am  not  wedded  to  General  Taylor.  President  Polk, 
Calhoun,  Stevenson,  Butler,  Walker,  Lewis,  could  get  my 
support  as  soon  or  more  so,  if  there  were  a  reasonable 
probability  of  success.  The  South  should  take  her  posi- 
tion. The  question  has  to  be  met.  It  ought  not  to 
be  shuffled  off  or  evaded  longer.  To  unite  on  any  one 
man  would  be  an  evidence  of  our  concert,  our  union,  our 
strength.  The  emergency  requires  it.  The  Constitution 
requires  it.  Truth,  justice,  patriotism,  and  our  interest 
require  of  us  something  more  than  empty  bravado.  Ac- 
tion, action,  action  is  not  more  necessary  in  oratory  than 
in  times  of  danger. 

Yours  respectfully, 
July  19th.  1847.  J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

This  was  a  remarkable  letter  to  have  been  written 
by  a  youth  of  twenty-two,  who  had  scarcely  finished 
his  law  studies.  With  the  understanding  of  the 
patriot,  no  less  than  with  the  keen  discernment  of 
the  politician,  he  recognized  the  political  dangers 
that  confronted  the  country,  and  the  possible  solu- 
tion of  those  dangers  in  the  election  of  some  safe, 
conservative  man  as  President.  The  North  and  the 
South  were  facing  each  other  with  hostile  and  defiant 
fronts  on  the  great  issue,  which  according  to  the 
theory  of  the  former  involved  the  cause  of  humanity 
itself,  and  according  to  that  of  the  latter  carried 


LAW   AND   LEGISLATION  91 

with  it  a  continuance,  or  a  destruction,  as  the  re- 
sult might  prove,  of  the  civilization  and  social 
existence  of  the  South.  Over  against  the  fiery 
denunciations  of  slavery  by  Garrison  and  Wen- 
dell Phillips  and  Owen  Lovejoy  and  Frothingham, 
Calhoun  set  the  logic  of  his  conclusions  in  the 
expression : — 

To  destroy  the  existing  relations  would  be  to  destroy 
this  prosperity  (of  the  Southern  States),  and  to  place  the 
two  races  in  a  state  of  conflict  which  must  end  in  the  ex- 
pulsion or  extirpation  of  one  or  the  other.  No  other  can  be 
substituted  compatible  with  their  peace  or  security.  The 
difficulty  is  in  the  diversity  of  the  races.  So  strongly 
drawn  is  the  line  between  the  two  in  consequence,  and  so 
strengthened  by  the  force  of  habit  and  education  that  it 
is  impossible  for  them  to  exist  together  in  the  community 
where  their  numbers  are  so  nearly  equal  as  in  the  slave- 
holding  States,  under  any  other  relation  than  that  which 
now  exists.  Social  and  political  equality  between  them  is 
impossible.  No  power  on  earth  can  overcome  the  difficulty. 
The  causes  lie  too  deep  in  the  principles  of  our  nature  to 
be  surmounted.  But,  without  such  equality,  to  change  the 
present  condition  of  the  African  race,  were  it  possible, 
would  be  but  to  change  the  form  of  slavery. 

This  is  a  lucid,  powerful  statement  and  read  in 
the  light  of  the  present,  after  fifty  years  of  freedom 
and  education  and  social  experimentation,  makes  it 
very  clear  how  honest  and  sincere  were  the  men  of 
the  Calhoun  type  throughout  the  country,  and  how 
well  grounded  their  fears.  Men  who  felt  in  this  way 
stood  on  higher  ground  than  greed  or  inhumanity. 
Surely  no  mere  oligarchy  of  wealth  could  feel  and 
speak  after  this  fashion. 

Curry,  with  the  recognition  that  soldiers  are  rarely 


92       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

politicians,  and  even  more  rarely  partisans,  saw  in 
General  Taylor,  Whig  though  he  acclaimed  himself, 
a  figure  before  which  the  stormy  passions  of  the  polit- 
ical period  might  subside;  and  in  this  patriotic  con- 
templation of  the  situation  many  other  older  and 
wiser  men  of  his  day  shared.  Yet  with  all  his  eager- 
ness to  save  the  country  from  its  impending  peril, 
he  fearlessly  proclaimed  his  principles  of  devotion 
to  the  Federal  Constitution,  as  construed  by  the 
school  of  democracy  to  which  he  professed  allegiance. 
On  the  first  Monday  in  August,  1847,  the  legis- 
lative election  was  held;  and  among  all  the  can- 
didates for  the  Alabama  House  of  Representatives  in 
his  county,  Curry  received  the  highest  number  of 
votes.  The  legislative  sessions  had  been  made 
biennial;  and  in  the  first  biennial  session  which 
assembled  in  the  new  capitol  of  the  State,  at  Mont- 
gomery, later  destined  to  witness  the  birth,  and  for 
a  brief  time  to  be  the  home,  of  the  ill-fated  Con- 
federacy, he  took  the  oath  of  office  as  a  legislator. 
The  session  was  distinguished  among  other  things  of 
a  different  character  by  the  election  of  a  United 
States  Senator.  The  body  was  overwhelmingly 
democratic;  and  the  strict-construction  candidate 
was  Curry's  friend  and  recent  host.  Senator  Dixon  M. 
Lewis,  whom  he  had  named  in  his  letter  to  Joiner, 
as  worthy  of  the  Presidential  nomination,  along  with 
General  Taylor,  the  conquering  hero  of  the  Mexican 
War;  President  Polk,  under  whose  administration 
that  war  had  been  successfully  waged;  the  great 
triumvir,  John  C.  Calhoun;  Andrew  Stevenson  of 
Virginia;  General  William  Orlando  Butler  of  Ken- 
tucky, who  for  his  gallantry  at  Monterey  had  re- 
ceived two  swords  of  honor,  and  Leroy  Pope  Walker, 


LAW   AND   LEGISLATION  93 

speaker  of  the  Alabama  House  of  Representatives, 
and  later  Confederate  Secretary  of  War. 

Lewis  belonged  to  the  Calhoun  school  of  democ- 
racy. He  was  a  strict  constructionist,  and  an  ultra 
State  rights  democrat.  William  R.  King,  his  demo- 
cratic competitor,  who  had  served  the  State  as 
senator,  and  who  had  the  year  before  returned  from 
Paris,  whither  he  had  gone  as  minister  to  France  in 
1844,  by  appointment  of  President  Tyler,  was  a 
follower  of  Van  Buren;  and  went  down  in  defeat 
before  the  NuUifier  and  Secessionist,  Lewis. 

Lewis  was  a  man  of  great  stature,  and  weighed 
considerably  more  than  four  hundred  pounds.  It 
is  said  that  furniture  had  to  be  constructed  for  his 
especial  use,  and  that  he  always  engaged  two  seats 
in  a  stage  coach  or  railway  car.  He  was  a  man  of 
fine  ability  and  noble  feelings;  and  the  story  is  told 
of  him  that  upon  the  occasion  of  the  shipwreck  of 
a  steamer  on  which  he  was  a  passenger,  he  refused 
to  enter  the  boat  that  was  let  down  to  take  off  the 
other  passengers,  until  they  were  all  safely  landed, 
for  fear  of  imperilling  their  safety;  and  was  in  im- 
minent danger  in  the  meantime  until  his  final  rescue. 

"Upon  reaching  Montgomery,"  writes  Curry  of  his 
new  experience  in  the  legislature,  "I  went  to  the  'Hall,* 
the  leading  hotel.  The  large  reception-room  was  crowded. 
Mr.  King  was  in  one  part,  surrounded  by  his  friends;  Mr. 
Lewis  in  another,  alike  surrounded.  My  preference  for 
Mr,  Lewis  being  known,  I  was  led  to  him,  and  he  seated 
me  upon  his  knee.  I  was  apparently  a  boy,  beardless  and 
slender;  Mr.  Lewis  was  the  largest  man  I  ever  saw.  Mr. 
W.  L.  Yancey,  afterwards  so  famous,  was  present,  and  an 
ardent  supporter  of  Mr.  Lewis,  who  at  the  election  by  the 
Legislature,  was  chosen  on  the  eighteenth  ballot." 


94       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

William  Lowndes  Yancey,  whom  Curry  mentions 
in  the  foregoing  paragraph,  was  at  that  time  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress.  It  was  in  this  year  of  1846  that, 
as  has  been  said  of  him,  "his  mission  began."  He 
had  been  an  antagonist  of  Nullification  in  South 
Carolina,  where  he  edited  a  newspaper  that  attacked 
Calhoun  and  Hayne.  Later  he  moved  to  Alabama, 
and  formulated  that  expression  of  political  faith 
among  Southern  democrats,  that  came  to  be  known 
as  ''the  Alabama  platform";  and  which  in  1860,  in 
the  Democratic  Convention  at  Charleston,  under 
the  influence  of  his  flaming  eloquence,  was  made  the 
Southern  program,  and  caused  the  division  of  the 
democracy  of  the  Union.  Possessed  of  an  unsur- 
passed and  compelling  gift  of  oratory,  he  was  a 
man  of  great  personal  modesty  and  self-effacement; 
and  he  was  as  much  beloved  by  his  friends  and 
political  followers  as  he  was  feared  and  hated  by 
his  political  antagonists.  The  fame  of  Yancey's 
wonderful  eloquence,  continuing  long  since  the  de- 
parture of  his  generation,  is  still  cherished  by  the 
descendants  of  the  men  who  heard  it,  both  gentle 
and  simple,  in  the  Southern  States;  where 

They'll  speak  of  him  for  years  to  come 

In  cottage-chronicle  and  tale. 
When  for  aught  else  renown  is  dumb, 

His  legend  shall  prevail. 

Upon  its  organization,  the  Alabama  House  of 
Representatives  elected  Leroy  Pope  Walker  its 
speaker.  In  appointing  his  committees,  Mr.  Walker 
gave  Curry  an  immediate,  though  not  undeserved 
prominence,  by  making  him  chairman  of  the  ex- 
tremely  important    committee    on   Privileges   and 


LAW   AND   LEGISLATION  95 

Elections;   and  he  also  gave  him  a  position  on  the 
Judiciary  Committee. 

The  only  bill  of  serious  importance  introduced  by 
Curry  during  the  session  was  one  ''to  reform  the 
evils  of  local  legislation  by  transferring  to  county 
and  to  court  jurisdiction  many  matters  which  had 
burdened  the  legislature."  It  was  a  bill  in  favor  of 
Curry's  favorite  democratic  doctrine  of  the  right  of 
local  self-government, — a  doctrine  that  Mr.  Burke 
has  accurately  and  strikingly  described: — 

To  be  attached  to  the  subdivision,  to  love  the  little  pla- 
toon we  belong  to  in  society,  is  the  first  principle, — the 
germ,  as  it  were, — of  public  affections.  It  is  the  first  link 
in  the  series  by  which  we  proceed  towards  a  love  to  our 
country,  and  to  mankind. 

To  its  author's  satisfaction  the  bill  became  a  law. 

Bills  to  fund  the  University  debt  and  for  the  in- 
crease of  taxes  were  the  subject  of  frequent  and 
animated  discussion  in  the  legislature.  Curry  sup- 
ported both;  and  he  spoke  in  favor  of  free  public 
schools,  and  voted  for  every  proposition  looking 
toward  the  endowment  of  the  State  University. 

"I  always  voted  for  measures  in  favor  of  educa- 
tion," he  records  of  this  period  of  his  earliest  legis- 
lative experience. 

During  this  session  of  the  legislature,  the  body 
gave  a  reception  to  Generals  John  A.  Quitman  and 
James  Shields,  both  of  whom  had  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  War  with  Mexico;  and  who,  like 
other  heroes  of  that  recent  struggle,  were  in  high 
public  favor,  wherever  they  went. 

During  this  session,  too,  Asa  Whitney,  the  origi- 
nator of  the  scheme  of  a  transcontinental  railroad, 


96        J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY   • 

and  through  whose  efforts  appropriations  were 
first  secured  in  1853  for  the  first  surveys  covering 
the  northern,  southern,  and  central  routes,  delivered 
an  address  before  the  legislature  in  advocacy  of  his 
scheme,  and  sought  its  endorsation  by  resolution. 
Curry,  in  recaUing  this  speech  in  1876,  did  not  re- 
member that  Mr.  Whitney's  efforts  in  endeavoring 
to  obtain  resolutions  in  behalf  of  his  Pacific  railroad 
were  successful. 

Another  legislative  visitor  of  the  period  was  Miss 
Dorothea  Dix,  whose  name  is  famous  in  America  for 
her  efforts  in  behalf  of  State  legislation  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  insane  hospitals  and  asylums  through- 
out the  country.  In  her  beneficent  work  for  the 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  prisoners,  paupers 
and  lunatics,  she  is  said  to  have  appeared  before  the 
respective  legislatures  of  every  state  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  to  have  been  largely  instrumental 
in  procuring  legislative  action  in  a  number  of  these 
states  for  the  establishment  of  state  hospitals  for  the 
insane.  This  was  her  mission  in  visiting  Montgom- 
ery :  but  it  does  not  appear  that  she  was  on  this  oc- 
casion successful. 

In  1848  occurred  the  Presidential  election  and 
the  birth  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  on  August  9th 
of  a  new  political  party,  the  Free  Soilers,  which 
adopted  a  platform  containing  the  declaration  that 
Congress  had  no  more  power  to  make  a  slave 
than  to  make  a  king.  This  platform  further  de- 
clared that  there  should  be  no  more  slave  states 
and  no  more  slave  territories;  and  nominated  Mar- 
tin Van  Buren  for  President  and  Charles  Francis 
Adams  for  Vice-president.  The  Democracy  earlier  in 
the  year  had  in  their  convention  at  Baltimore  nomi- 


LAW   AND   LEGISLATION  97 

nated  Lewis  Cass  of  Michigan  and  William  Orlando 
Butler  of  Kentucky  for  President  and  Vice-presi- 
dent, and  had  renewed  the  strict-construction  plat- 
forms of  1840  and  1844; — but  with  a  significance  as 
ominous  as  that  with  which  Mr.  Jefferson  had 
viewed  the  adoption  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
It  had  voted  down  by  an  overwhelming  majority  a 
resolution  that  Congress  had  no  power  to  interfere 
with  slavery,  either  in  the  territories  or  the  states. 
The  Whig  Convention,  following  that  of  the  Democ- 
racy, had  wisely  recognized  the  influence  of  war 
upon  the  popular  mind;  and  had  done  what  Curry 
in  his  letter  to  Joiner  had  intimated  a  desire  to  see 
the  Democrats  do.  It  had  met  at  Philadelphia  in 
June,  and  nominated  General  Zachary  Taylor  for 
President,  and  Millard  Fillmore  of  New  York  for 
Vice-president,  without  a  platform  or  other  declara- 
tion of  party  principles.  Taylor  was  a  slave-holder; 
and  many  Democrats  in  the  South,  ''preferred  a 
slave-holding  candidate  without  a  platform  to  a  non- 
slave-holding  candidate,  on  a  platform  in  which  sup- 
port of  slavery  had  been  voted  down."  Taylor  and 
Fillmore  were  elected  by  a  majority  of  both  free  and 
slave  states.  The  Northern  Democrats  believed  that 
the  Southern  democracy  had  betrayed  the  Cass 
ticket :  and  when  Congress  met  in  December,  nearly 
all  of  the  Free  State  Democrats  voted  in  the  House 
for  a  bill  to  organize  the  territories  of  California  and 
New  Mexico,  with  the  Wilmot  Proviso  attached. 

The  belief  entertained  by  the  Northern  democracy 
that  the  Southern  Democrats  had  not  been  loyal  to 
Cass  was  certainly  not  true  in  Curry's  case. 
Though,  with  a  wisdom  beyond  his  years  and  experi- 
ence, he  had  put  General  Taylor  forward  as  his  fore- 


98       J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

most  candidate,  after  his  party  had  made  its  plat- 
form and  its  nominations  he  zealously  supported 
both. 

''I  made  a  number  of  speeches  in  favor  of  General 
Cass,"  he  writes  in  his  record;  "but  the  military 
fame  of  General  Taylor  gave  him  an  early  success." 

Prior  to  his  election  to  the  legislature  in  August, 
1847,  an  event  had  occurred  in  Curry's  life  of  para- 
mount importance  above  politics  or  any  experience 
of  office-holding  or  political  campaigning.  On  the 
4th  of  March,  1847,  he  married  Ann  Alexander 
Bowie,  whose  father.  Judge  Alexander  Bowie,  was 
born  in  Abbeville  district.  South  Carolina,  and  died 
December  30,  1866,  in  Talladega.  He  was  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  South  Carolina  College,  a  member  of  the 
legislature  of  that  state,  and  at  the  Nullification  Con- 
vention, a  popular  lawyer,  and  a  very  eloquent 
speaker.  He  moved  to  Talladega  County,  Alabama, 
in  1836;  and  was  a  trustee  of  the  State  University 
and  chancellor  of  the  Northern  Division  of  the  State. 
His  son-in-law  has  left  of  him  the  memorial  that  *'he 
was  a  fine  conversationist,  a  graceful  writer,  and  a 
scholarly.  Christian  gentleman."  Mrs.  Curry's 
mother  was  Susan  Jack,  a  member  of  a  prominent 
South  Carolina  family;  and  Mrs.  Curry  herself  was 
born  near  Abbeville,  prior  to  the  father's  removal  to 
Talladega. 

The  issue  of  this  marriage  was  four  children, 
Susan  Lamar,  William  Alexander,  Manly  Bowie, 
and  Jackson  Thomas.  Of  these,  only  two  arrived  at 
adult  age.  William  Alexander  Curry  was  born  in 
1854  and  died  in  the  following  year;  and  Jackson 
Thomas  Curry,  who  was  born  in  1860,  also  died  in 
the  year  succeeding  his  birth.     The  oldest  child, 


LAW   AND   LEGISLATION  99 

Susan  Lamar  Curry,  who  was  born  September  2, 
1850,  married  November  13,  1873,  Reverend  John 
B.  Turpin,  and  died  January  7,  1881.  The  son  who 
grew  to  manhood  was  Manly  Bowie  Curry,  who  was 
born  April  23,  1857.  He  was  educated  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia,  and  was  a  captain  in  the  United 
States  Army  in  the  Philippines,  after  the  Spanish- 
American  War.  He  was  killed  in  an  automobile  acci- 
dent at  Atlanta,  Georgia,  December  18,  1907.  At 
the  time  of  his  death  he  was  a  major  in  the  United 
States  Army,  and  Paymaster  of  the  Department  of 
the  Gulf.  He  left  a  widow  and  three  small  children 
to  survive  him. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   BONE    OF   CONTENTION 

Curry  writes  in  his  record,  long  after  the  stormy 
passions  engendered  by  the  poUtics  of  the  slavery 
period  had  passed  away: — 

1850  was  a  year  of  much  political  excitement.  Ques- 
tions growing  out  of  the  acquisition  of  territory  from 
Mexico  deeply  agitated  the  Southern  mind.  In  Congress 
what  was  called  the  "Wilmot  Proviso,"  prohibiting  the 
introduction  of  African  slavery  into  the  territories  lately 
acquired  by  expenditure  of  common  blood  and  treasure, 
had  divided  political  parties,  and  exasperated  the  North 
and  the  South.  Since  the  close  of  the  Mexican  War, 
slavery  as  affecting  the  territories  was  the  "bone  of  con- 
tention." A  large  party  at  the  North  demanded  that  the 
territories  should  be  kept  free  from  the  "curse."  The 
South  felt  that  to  exclude  their  peculiar  property  from 
common  territory  was  a  flagrant  injustice,  an  insulting 
discrimination,  and  a  violation  of  the  Constitution.  The 
two  sections  began  to  grow  apart,  and  to  feel  alienation 
and  animosity.  Bills  were  numerous,  during  these  years, 
in  Congress,  to  adjust  the  dispute.  Debates  were  able. 
Calhoun  and  Webster  were  then  living;  and  they  repre- 
sented the  two  sides  of  the  question. 

David  Wilmot,  a  democratic  member  of  Congress 
from  Pennsylvania,  had  introduced  his  famous  ''Pro- 
viso" in  1846.  It  consisted,  as  has  been  heretofore 
partially  stated,  of  an  amendment  to  the  pending  bill 

100 


THE    BONE    OF    CONTENTION       101 

for  appropriating  two  millions  of  dollars  for  the  pur- 
chase of  a  part  of  Mexico,  and  the  amendment  pro- 
vided that  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude 
except  for  crime  should  ever  exist  in  said  territory. 
The  amendment  passed  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives and  failed  of  passage  in  the  Senate;  but  it  gave 
rise  to  the  ''Free-Soil"  movement,  and  split  the 
Northern  and  Southern  democracy  like  a  wedge. 
The  Wilmot  Proviso  and  the  Missouri  Compromise 
constitute  the  two  crucial  measures  in  the  history  of 
slavery  legislation.  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  a  sort  of  de- 
spair, called  the  Compromise  ''the  Knell  of  the 
Union."  To  the  Northern  men  of  the  'forties  the 
Proviso  seemed  the  tocsin  of  the  armed  conflict  nec- 
essary to  preserve  its  life. 

"The  coincidence  of  a  marked  principle,  moral  and 
political,  with  a  geographical  line,"  said  Jefferson,  with 
pregnant  prescience,  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  "once 
conceived,  I  feared  would  never  more  be  obliterated  from 
the  mind;  that  it  would  be  recurring  on  every  occasion, 
and  renewing  irritations,  until  it  would  kindle  such  mutual 
and  mortal  hatred  as  to  render  separation  preferable  to 
eternal  discord." 

The  object  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  Act  of 
1820,  as  that  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  was  to  deUmit 
the  extension  of  slavery :  the  former  prohibiting  slav- 
ery thenceforward  north  of  the  line  of  36°  30';  and 
the  latter,  as  stated,  prohibiting  it  in  the  newly  ac- 
quired Mexican  territory.  In  1846,  the  time  of  the 
Proviso,  the  great  issue  had  come  to  be  too  exciting 
to  admit  of  the  picturesque  and  vituperative  phrase- 
ology which  men  like  John  Randolph  had  bestowed 
upon  the  earlier  measure. 


102      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

The  forces  of  North  and  South  were  beginning  to 
align  themselves  for  the  titanic  struggle  which  was 
to  follow  in  less  than  two  decades. 

"In  1849-50  certain  laws  were  passed,  called  'Com- 
promise Measures,'"  continues  Curry,  "The  spirit  and 
general  tenor  of  this  legislation,  it  was  thought  by  many 
persons,  especially  in  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama 
and  Mississippi,  were  very  hostile  to  the  rights  and 
equality  of  the  South  in  the  Union.  In  this  year,  1850, 
and  in  1851,  an  attempt  was  made  to  organize  a  party 
favorable  to  secession.  I  favored  it,  but  the  movement 
was  unwise,  premature  and  unpopular." 

The  Compromise  Measures  of  1850  were  a  series  of 
acts  dealing,  for  the  most  part,  with  the  slavery 
question  and  the  rights  of  the  Northern  and  Southern 
States  under  the  Constitution.  Henry  A.  Wise  of 
Virginia  spoke  of  these  measures  as  ''an  awful  paci- 
fication"; but  the  stringent  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
written  into  the  Compromise  Acts  by  James  Murray 
Mason  of  Virginia,  served  to  make  them  the  instru- 
ment of  delaying  the  "irrepressible  conflict"  for  an- 
other decade.  In  the  meantime,  the  "attempt  to 
organize  a  party  favorable  to  secession"  took  place 
in  the  calling  of  a  convention  of  Southern  States  to 
meet  in  June,  1850,  at  Nashville,  Tennessee. 

"The  great  object  of  a  Southern  Convention,"  wrote 
Mr.  Calhoun  on  July  9,  1849,  to  Mr.  Collin  S.  Tarpley 
of  Mississippi,  "should  be  to  put  forth  in  a  solemn  man- 
ner the  causes  of  our  grievances  in  an  address  to  the 
other  states,  and  to  admonish  them,  in  a  solemn  manner, 
as  to  the  consequences  which  must  follow,  if  they  should 
not  be  redressed,  and  to  take  measures  preparatory  to 
it,  in  case  they  should  not  be.  The  call  should  be  ad- 
dressed to  all  those  who  are  desirous  to  save  the  Union 


THE   BONE    OF    CONTENTION       103 

and  our  institutions,  and  who,  in  the  alternative,  should 
it  be  forced  on  us,  would  prefer  the  latter." 

The  Southern  Convention  met  at  Nashville  in 
June,  1850.  Five  Southern  States  were  represented. 
A  preamble  and  resolutions  were  adopted,  which  set 
forth  with  great  vividness  and  effect  the  grounds  of 
difference  between  the  people  of  the  South  and  those 
of  the  North  in  relation  to  the  construction  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  and  Slavery.  In  the  preamble 
occurred  these  words:  ''We  make  no  aggressive 
move.  We  stand  upon  the  defensive.  We  invoke 
the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  claim  its  guaran- 
tees. Our  rights,  our  independence,  the  peace  and 
existence  of  our  families,  depend  upon  the  issue." 
Among  the  resolutions  was  one  expressing  ''cordial 
attachment  to  the  Constitutional  Union  of  the 
States,"  but  another  declaring  that  Union  to  be  one 
of  "equal  and  independent  sovereignties,"  possess- 
ing the  right  to  resume  the  powers  delegated  to  the 
Federal  Government,  whenever  they  deemed  it 
"proper  and  necessary."  There  was  also  a  resolu- 
tion recommending  to  the  Southern  States  that  they 
meet  in  a  Congress  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the 
restoration  of  their  Constitutional  rights,  if  possible, 
or  else  of  providing  for  "their  future  safety  and  inde- 
pendence." 

Pending  the  Compromise  Measures  in  Congress, 
the  Nashville  Southern  Convention  adjourned  to 
reconvene  in  the  following  November.  Upon  its  re- 
assembly in  Nashville,  its  numbers  were  larger,  and 
seven  states  were  now  found  to  be  represented.  But 
in  the  meantime  the  compromise  bills  had  become 
laws:  and  the  Southern  Convention  adjourned,  after 
the  adoption  of  a  series  of  resolutions,  that  were  as 


104     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

extraordinary  in  their  detail  of  the  principles  animat- 
ing the  men  who  made  them,  as  they  were  futile. 

"In  the  public  meetings  in  Talladega  County,"  con- 
tinues Curry  in  his  narrative  of  the  political  events  of 
the  period,  "I  took  an  active  part,  and  made  several 
speeches. 

"Mr.  Calhoun  died  this  year,  and  at  a  public  meeting 
at  the  Court  House  to  take  proper  notice  of  the  great 
loss,  I  was  on  the  Committee  on  Resolutions,  and  made 
an  address." 

During  the  years  of  1851  and  1852  Curry  lived 
quietly  on  his  farm,  making  an  occasional  speech  at 
a  farmers'  meeting,  or  a  Fourth  of  July  oration  at  a 
country  barbecue.  Of  an  address  of  the  latter  kind 
he  takes  occasion  to  record  that  it  "was  thoroughly 
prepared  and  memorized,  without  my  writing  a 
word."  Jackson  Curry  about  this  time  bought  a 
plantation  in  Marengo  County,  and  moved  thither; 
whereupon  Jabez  bought  his  brother  Jackson's  farm, 
which  lay  only  three  miles  distant  from  Talladega, 
and  more  convenient  to  his  law-office  than  his  own. 
Settling  on  this  place,  he  resumed  the  active  practice 
of  the  law  in  Talladega,  living  there  until  1865,  when 
he  moved  to  Marion.  ' 

"During  these  years,"  he  writes,  "there  was  scarcely  a 
night  that  there  were  not  one  or  more  persons  at  my 
house — preachers,  relatives,  and  friends  were  always 
welcome." 

Of  this  overflowing  and  unassuming  hospitality, 
characteristic  of  the  people  and  country,  he  makes 
further  mention: — 

In  the  absence  of  a  sufficient  supply  of  preachers, 
Methodists,    Baptists    and    Presbyterians    held    "camp- 


THE   BONE    OF    CONTENTION       105 

meetings."  An  arbor  was  built,  surrounded  by  tents 
rudely  constructed  of  planks.  The  tent-holders  furnished 
food  and  lodging,  gratuitously  and  bounteously  to  all 
visitors.  At  the  stand  or  arbor,  preaching  and  other 
religious  services  were  held  during  the  day  and  at  night. 
Immense  congregations  attended.  The  Baptists  held  a 
camp-meeting  at  Cold  Water,  a  large  clear  stream  of 
limestone  water,  on  the  boundary  between  Talladega  and 
Calhoun  Counties.  My  father  had  the  largest  tent  on 
the  ground,  and  entertained  a  large  number  of  persons. 
I  attended  these  meetings  every  year,  and  enjoyed  them. 
Distinguished  preachers  were  usually  present.  While 
liable  to  degenerate  into  physical  excitement,  the  meet- 
ings on  the  whole  were  productive  of  good. 

In  1852,  Curry  acted  as  agent  for  the  Alabama 
and  Tennessee  River  Railroad  Company;  and  in 
this  capacity  traversed  the  counties  of  Talladega,  Cal- 
houn and  Randolph,  making  speeches,  and  obtaining 
rights  of  way  and  subscriptions  for  the  road,  which 
was  being  built  from  Selma  to  Rome,  via  Monticello, 
Talladega  and  Jacksonville. 

In  1853,  he  was  again  a  candidate  for  the  State 
legislature  from  Talladega  County,  and  was  again 
elected  at  the  head  of  the  poll.  The  speaker  of  the 
House,  the  Honorable  William  Garrett,  appointed 
him  to  the  chairmanship  of  the  committee  on  In- 
ternal Improvements.  He  was  also  made  a  member 
of  the  committee  on  Education,  and  chairman  of 
the  House  division  of  a  joint  committee  to  examine 
the  accounts  of  the  commissioner  and  trustee  who 
had  been  previously  designated  to  "wind  up"  the 
State  bank  and  its  branches. 

A  school  law,  heretofore  referred  to  in  an  earlier 
chapter,  introduced  and  championed  by  Judge  Meek, 


106      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

that  was  designed  to  institute  and  organize  a  system 
of  public  schools  for  the  State,  was  enacted.  Of  its 
distinguished  author,  Curry  has  left  the  following 
memorial,  written  in  1895 : — 

Alexander  B,  Meek,  then  of  Mobile,  a  brilliant  speaker, 
of  large  culture,  rich,  poetic  fancy,  progressiveness  of  aim 
and  thought,  had  the  patriotic  purpose  to  develop  the 
minds  of  Alabama  youth.  In  due  time,  from  his  com- 
mittee on  Education,  he  submitted  an  able  report,  ac- 
companied by  an  elaborate  bill,  providing  for  the  estab- 
lishment and  maintenance  of  a  system  of  public  schools. 
After  an  interesting  debate,  the  bill  became  a  law,  and 
William  F.  Perry  of  Talladega  was  elected  Superinten- 
dent. 

But  by  far  the  most  interesting  and  exciting  ques- 
tion before  the  legislature  was  that  of  "State  aid." 
Of  this  Curry  writes: — 

Mji-  committee  reported  bills,  granting  endorsement  of 
railroad  bonds,  on  certain  well-defined  conditions;  and 
the  Governor,  John  A.  Winston,  vetoed  them.  In  the 
controversy,  I  defended  the  bills  and  the  principle  of 
well-guarded  assistance  to  internal  improvements. 

Winston's  opposition  to  State  aid  for  railroads 
and  the  reissue  of  State  banknotes  as  a  loan  to  rail- 
road companies  won  for  him  the  soubriquet  of  "the 
Veto  Governor."  Curry's  influence  in  the  legis- 
lature, or  other  undisclosed  causes,  served  to  pass 
the  State  aid  bills  over  the  Governor's  vetoes;  but 
the  latter  triumphed  in  the  end.  The  attorney- 
general  of  the  State  stood  by  the  executive  in  the 
struggle,  and  gave  an  opinion  that  the  acts  were 
unconstitutional;  and  the  treasurer  of  the  State  was 
instructed  to  make  no  disbursements  under  them. 


THE   BONE   OF   CONTENTION       107 

Winston's  attitude  was  vindicated  by  his  re-election 
as  governor  in  1855,  and  the  approbration  of  his 
course  with  reference  to  ''State  aid"  by  the  legis- 
lature of  that  year. 

For  some  years  the  question  of  a  geological  survey 
of  Alabama  had  been  agitated,  and  the  relation  of 
geology  to  agriculture  had  been  discussed.  The 
monumental  work  of  William  Barton  Rogers,  who 
had  organized  a  survey  of  Virginia,  and  of  his  hardly 
less  distinguished  brother,  Henry  D.  Rogers,  who 
had  made  similar  surveys  of  New  Jersey  and  of 
Pennsylvania,  had  for  the  past  two  decades  attracted 
attention  to  the  historical  geology  of  the  great 
Appalachian  chain;  and  farseeing  men  in  Alabama 
beheld  with  the  eyes  of  prophecy  the  future  that 
State  was  destined  to  have  when  a  full  knowledge  of 
her  subterranean  possessions  should  be  unfolded  and 
disclosed.  In  1850,  the  committee  on  Education  in 
the  State  Senate  had  submitted  a  bill  for  a  geological 
survey;  but  no  action  was  taken  upon  it.  During 
the  session  of  1853-54,  Curry  offered  a  similar  bill  in 
the  house,  and  it  was  referred  to  his  committee  on 
Internal  Improvements.  He  reported  it  to  the  house 
from  the  committee,  with  a  written  argument  in  its 
behalf  that  was  published  separately.  After  con- 
siderable opposition  the  bill  became  a  law.  It 
authorized,  among  other  things,  the  appointment  by 
the  Governor,  of  a  State  geologist  at  a  salary  of  $2,500, 
whose  duty  it  should  be  to  make  a  thorough  survey, 
''so  as  to  determine  accurately  the  quality  and  char- 
acteristics of  the  soil  and  adaptation  to  agricultural 
purposes;  the  mineral  resources,  their  location,  and 
the  best  means  for  their  development;  the  water 
power  and  capacities,  and  generally  everything  re- 


108      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

lating  to  the  geological  and  agricultural  character  of 
the  State."  It  was  the  modest  beginning  of  a  tre- 
mendous movement,  and  contained  in  it  the  germ 
which  fructified  and  bore  abundant  harvest  later  in 
the  mines  of  Alabama,  and  the  furnace  fires  of 
Birmingham  and  her  sister  cities  of  a  later  industrial 
epoch. 

,  The  year  1854  seems  by  the  record  to  have  been 
a  quiet  and  uneventful  one  in  Curry's  personal  his- 
tory. In  1876  he  wrote  concerning  it:  "I  can  now 
recall  nothing  of  special  interest.  My  farm  and  pro- 
fession occupied  my  time." 

In  May,  1855,  William  Curry,  his  father  died;  and 
in  his  death  his  son  suffered  a  great  loss.  Mr.  Curry 
was  a  man  of  no  inconsiderable  wealth,  and  large 
popularity.  He  was  liberal  and  hospitable  to  a 
fault;  and  he  was  a  conscientious  and  devoted 
Christian.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  a  director 
of  the  Alabama  and  Tennessee  River  Railway  Com- 
pany; and,  in  filial  affection,  his  son  Jabez  preserved 
among  his  papers  to  the  day  of  his  death,  a  copy  of 
the  resolutions  of  respect  passed  by  William  Curry's 
colleagues  on  the  board  of  directors.  May  24,  1855. 

In  proportion  as  the  preceding  year  had  seemed 
to  him  dull  and  uneventful,  Curry  found  that  of 
1855  crowded  to  the  brim  with  action  and  excite- 
ment. Writing  of  the  time  more  than  a  generation 
later,  he  says: — 

The  years  1854-1855  will  be  long  remembered  for  the 
origin,  unparalleled  growth  and  complete  overthrow  of 
the  American  or  Know-Nothing  Party.  It  was  a  secret 
political  organization,  with  degrees  or  orders  of  member- 
ship, and  a  ritual  of  initiation.  Strong  oaths  were  ad- 
ministered to  persons   admitted.     The  party  suddenly 


THE   BONE    OF    CONTENTION       109 

became  very  popular.  Lodges  were  organized,  in  nearly 
every  neighborhood,  village,  town  and  city  in  the 
United  States.  So  strong  was  the  organization,  it  be- 
came presumptuous  and  intolerant  of  opposition.  The 
leading  object  was  to  cultivate  an  intense  Americanism, 
and  exclude  aliens  from  suffrage,  and  Roman  Catholics 
from  office.  Nearly  all  the  Whigs  and  many  Democrats 
were  beguiled  into  the  party,  which  encountered  its  first 
and  most  serious  opposition  in  Virginia,  where  Henry 
A.  Wise,  the  democratic  candidate  for  governor,  made 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  effective  campaigns  ever 
made  in  the  United  States.  In  many  other  States  the 
excitement  was  high;  in  none,  more  than  in  Alabama. 
In  spite  of  many  friendly  warnings  as  to  my  self-inflicted 
political  immolation,  I  was,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end,  inflexibly  opposed  to  the  secret  party  and  its  prin- 
ciples. The  death  of  my  father  and  the  settlement  of 
his  estate  made  it  proper  for  me  to  decline  candidacy 
for  any  office;  but  on  July  3,  1855,  I  was  by  a  county 
convention  unanimously  nominated  for  the  legislative 
house  of  representatives.  The  convention  was  preceded 
by  a  large  and  tumultuous  and  sanguine  assemblage  of 
the  opposition;  and  the  leading  speaker,  in  anticipation 
of  my  nomination,  congratulated  his  party  on  the  glory 
it  would  have  in  defeating  "the  Ajax  Telamon  of  the 
Democracy."  Having  apparently  no  option,  I  accepted 
the  nomination;  and  from  that  day  until  the  election 
on  the  first  Monday  in  August  I  traveled  and  spoke 
every  day,  except  Sundays.  The  Know-Nothings  never 
doubted  of  success;  and  I  had  to  meet  in  debate  Lewis 
E.  Parsons,  a  knightly  antagonist,  one  of  the  ablest  law- 
yers in  the  State,  a  thorough  gentleman,  afterwards  gov- 
ernor by  presidential  appointment,  and  Hon.  Thomas  B. 
Woodward,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Nullification 
Convention  in  South  Carolina,  and  was  the  brother  of 
Joseph  A.  Woodward,  a  leading  member  of  Congress 
from  South  Carolina,  and  who  participated  with  others 


no      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

in  the  canvass.  The  crowds  were  large,  and  the  debates 
warm  and  excited.  Several  times  I  spoke  in  face  of 
threats  of  personal  violence.  Having  obtained  one  of 
the  little  "yellow  books"  (which  I  now  possess)  contain- 
ing the  oaths  and  ritual,  I  used  them  unsparingly.  I  rode 
on  horseback  to  our  various  appointments,  and  never 
more  enjoyed  intellectual  encounters.  My  whole  ticket 
was  elected,  I  leading  the  poll,  receiving  a  majority  of 
2,550.  I  was  on  the  day  of  the  election  thirty  miles  from 
the  Court  House,  and  rode  that  night  on  horseback, 
reaching  the  Square  about  2  a.m.,  to  be  received  by  as 
glad  and  enthusiastic  an  assemblage  as  ever  rejoiced  over 
an  election.  Letters  came  from  prominent  men,  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  State,  warmly  congratulating  me,  as 
Talladega  from  the  ability  of  the  Know-Nothing  candi- 
dates was  one  of  the  chief  battle  fields  in  the  State. 

The  Know-Nothing  party  was,  as  stated  by  Curry, 
a  secret  organization,  the  chief  plank  of  whose  plat- 
form was  "America  for  Americans."  It  masque- 
raded behind  mystic  symbolism,  and  the  parapher- 
nalia of  ritual  ceremony.  It  had  supreme  lodges 
and  subordinate  lodges,  and  degrees,  and  grips  and 
passwords.  It  had  appeared  first  in  1852;  when, 
as  is  often  the  case  with  embryo  political  organiza- 
tions, it  contented  itself  with  interrogating  the  can- 
didates of  other  parties.  Its  secret  name  at  first 
was  "The  Sons  of  76,  or  the  Order  of  the  Star- 
Spangled  Banner."  Later  it  became  "The  National 
Council  of  the  United  States  of  North  America." 
Its  derisive  nickname  by  those  who  vainly  inter- 
rogated its  members  as  to  its  program  and  signifi- 
cance, only  to  receive  the  reply,  "I  don't  know," 
was  that  of  "Know-Nothings."  It  largely  sup- 
planted the  Whig  party  in  the  South  and  Southwest. 
After  an  overwhelming  and  crushing  defeat  at  the 


THE    BONE    OF    CONTENTION       111 

hands  of  the  Vu-ginia  democracy,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Wise  in  the  gubernatorial  campaign  of  1855, 
its  power  began  to  wane,  and  its  members  deserted 
it,  as  rats  leave  a  sinking  ship.  In  spite  of  its  loudly 
vaunted  Americanism,  it  was  distinctly  un-American 
in  its  proscription  for  religious  principle,  and  in  its 
organization  as  a  political  party  upon  a  basis  of 
secrecy.  Its  members,  abandoning  both  of  these 
un-American  dogmas,  finally  merged  in  the  Con- 
stitutional Union  party,  which  nominated  and  sup- 
ported Bell  and  Everett  in  the  portentous  presiden- 
tial election  of  1860. 

Curry's  innate  spirit  of  hostility  to  any  political 
proscription  chimed  in  with  his  established  princi- 
ples of  democracy  in  this  contest;  and  his  triumphant 
campaign,  which  culminated  in  his  enthusiastic  re- 
ception in  the  late  hours  of  election  night  by  his  ex- 
cited and  elated  supporters,  had  been  won  with  an 
energy  and  an  eloquence  that  had  been  as  effective 
as  they  were  sincere. 

The  legislature  met  in  the  State  House  at  Mont- 
gomery in  December,  1855.  The  Speaker,  Richard 
W.  Walker,  was  not  only  a  political  but  a  personal 
friend  of  Curry's;  and  he  again  became  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Internal  Improvements,  and  also 
retained  his  place  on  the  committee  on  Education, 
and  on  the  joint  committee  to  examine  and  audit 
the  accounts  of  the  Bank  Commissioner.  During 
this  session  he  made  speeches  on  subjects  of  internal 
improvement,  on  the  proper  disposition  of  the  bills 
of  the  State  bank,  and  on  the  American  party.  The 
last  was  in  reply  to  the  Honorable  C.  C.  Langdon 
of  Mobile;  and  created  so  unusual  and  distinct  an 
impression  for  ability  and  eloquence  upon  its  hearers. 


112     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

that  its  publication  was  requested  by  every  demo- 
cratic member  of  the  house.  Its  author,  however, 
with  characteristic  modesty,  declined  the  proffered 
request;  and  the  speech,  hke  many  other  unusual 
and  unreported  specimens  of  human  eloquence, 
passed  into  the  limbo  of  forgetfulness. 

The  geological  bill,  which  in  the  preceding  session 
had  become  a  law,  continued  an  object  of  interest 
and  improvement  with  him;  and  a  report  upon  it 
and  its  operations,  from  his  committee  on  Internal 
Improvements,  written  and  presented  by  him,  and 
of  which  a  thousand  copies  were  printed  and  cir- 
culated in  the  State,  emphasized  its  importance,  and 
added  vitality  and  effect  to  its  provisions. 

He  had  been  a  delegate  from  his  county  to  the 
State  democratic  conventions  of  1847  and  1852;  and 
he  was  again  elected  to  that  of'  1856,  whose  function 
it  was,  among  others,  to  choose  delegates  to  the 
National  Democratic  Convention,  which  met  in 
Cincinnati,  June  2  of  that  year,  and  nominated 
Buchanan  and  Breckinridge  on  a  strict-construction 
platform,  which  included  a  condemnation  of  Know- 
Nothingism,  an  approval  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
bill,  and  the  substitution  of  what  its  adversaries 
called  ''Squatter  Sovereignty"  in  place  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

All  these  doctrines  were  highly  acceptable  to 
Curry,  who  belonged  to  the  school  of  Calhoun  de- 
mocracy, the  members  of  which  dominated  the  con- 
vention. He  was  made  a  presidential  elector  on  the 
State  democratic  ticket  of  that  year. 

"I  canvassed  the  district  thoroughly,"  he  writes  of  his 
own  part  in  the  campaign,  "and  spoke  also  in  Selma  and 
Marion.     I  received  the  highest  vote  of  any  of  the  elec- 


THE   BONE    OF    CONTENTION       113 

tors;    and  went  to  Montgomery  to  meet  the  Electoral 
College  and  cast  the  vote  of  the  State  for  Mr.  Buchanan." 

His  personal  and  political  popularity,  extending 
from  his  county,  in  which,  in  three  successive  legis- 
lative campaigns,  he  had  led  the  poll  as  a  candidate, 
was  now  illustrated  in  the  State  at  large  in  the  fact 
which  he  so  modestly  states,  that  he  ''received  the 
highest  vote  of  any  of  the  electors."  This  popu- 
larity, when  first  evidenced,  was  attributed  by  him 
to  his  "small  size,  his  youthful  appearance,  and  the 
popularity  of  his  father."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
was  undoubtedly  due  to  his  powers  as  a  popular 
orator,  and  to  his  equipment  as  a  well-informed 
politician  of  pleasing  address,  of  profound  convic- 
tions, of  frank  expression,  and  of  great  energy  and 
enterprise.     Of  himself  at  this  period  he  writes: — 

Nominally  practising  law,  I  attended  to  my  farm  and 
read  much  of  politics  and  miscellaneous  literature.  I 
desired  to  prepare  myself  to  be  a  statesman,  and  my 
reading  was  largely  in  that  line. 

Besides  his  other  work,  already  noticed,  he  wrote 
at  this  time  a  great  deal  for  the  newspapers.  His 
close  connection  with  the  Talladega  Watchtower, 
which  had  begun  soon  after  his  return  from  Harvard, 
continued;  and  in  1856,  nearly  all  of  the  Watchtower 
editorials  were  from  his  pen.     He  says: — 

"I  wrote  much  for  the  above  paper,  and  became  a 
tolerable  printer,  and  an  expert  proof-reader.  Reading 
proof  I  consider  a  valuable  part  of  my  education." 


CHAPTER  VII 


"bleeding  Kansas" 


In  the  fall  of  1856  occurred  the  Presidential  elec- 
tion, with  the  extension  or  restoration  of  slavery  in 
the  Territories,  the  burning  question  of  the  hour. 
Buchanan  and  Breckinridge,  the  democratic  can- 
didates, were  elected  over  the  opposing  Know- 
Nothing  and  Republican  tickets,  whose  nominees 
were  respectively  Millard  Fillmore  and  Andrew 
Jackson  Donelson  on  the  former,  and  John  C.  Fre- 
mont and  William  L.  Dayton  on  the  latter.  The 
democratic  ticket  received  174  electoral  votes;  that 
of  the  Republican  party  1 14,  and  the  Know-Nothing 
candidates  8.  Buchanan  and  Breckinridge  were  in- 
augurated March  4,  1857;  and  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  rendered  its  opinion  in  the 
Dred  Scott  case  two  days  later.  It  is  significant  of 
the  inflamed  condition  of  the  public  mind  on  the 
question  of  slavery,  that  although  this  case  had  been 
decided  in  1856,  the  great  tribunal  which  had  deter- 
mined it  thought  it  best  to  withhold  its  opinion 
until  the  excitement  of  the  Presidential  election 
should  have  subsided. 

In  May,  1857,  a  democratic  convention  for  the 
Congressional  district  in  Alabama,  which  included 
Talladega,  met  in  that  town,  and  nominated  Curry 
for  Congress,  his  competitor,  Colonel  Griffin,  retiring 
after  hearing  two  of  Curry's  speeches  in  the  canvass. 

114 


"  BLEEDING   KANSAS  "  115 

The  democratic  candidate  made  political  addresses 
in  every  county  in  his  district,  although  without  op- 
position, in  the  effort  as  he  states  "to  instruct  the 
people  on  grave  political  issues  and  the  character  of 
the  government." 

After  the  election  in  November,  Curry,  with  his 
family,  consisting  of  his  wife,  two  children,  and  a 
servant,  went  to  Washington,  and  took  rooms  at 
the  Ebbitt  House,  where  his  kinsman,  L.  Q.  C. 
Lamar,  then  a  member  from  Mississippi,  and  several 
colleagues  from  Alabama,  were  established.  Ala- 
bama in  this  session  was  represented  in  the  lower 
house  by  James  A.  Stallworth,  Eli  S.  Slater,  James 
F.  Dowdell,  Sydenham  Moore,  George  S.  Houston, 
Williamson  R.  W.  Cobb,  and  J.  L.  M.  Curry.  The 
Senators  were  Clement  C.  Clay,  Jr.,  and  Benjamin 
Fitzpatrick. 

Congress  met  on  the  7th  of  December,  with  a  sub- 
stantial democratic  majority  in  both  houses,  al- 
though in  the  preceding  Presidential  election  there 
had  been  no  popular  majority  for  any  one  of  the 
three  tickets  in  the  field;  and  Fremont  would  have 
been  elected  if  Pennsylvania  and  Illinois  had  voted 
Republican.  But  the  breach  had  not  yet  come  in 
the  democracy  between  the  Douglas  democrats,  and 
those  who  upheld  the  doctrines  of  Calhoun  under  the 
leadership  of  Breckinridge  and  Yancey  and  Toombs 
and  Davis, — a  breach  that  divided  the  great  political 
organization  and  lit  the  fires  of  civil  war  four  years 
later  in  the  ascendancy  of  the  young  Republican 
party.  In  the  Senate  there  were  39  Democrats,  20 
Republicans  and  5  Know-Nothings.  In  the  House 
the  Democratic  membership  numbered  131,  the 
Republican  92,  and  the  Know-Nothings  14.     James 


116      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

L.  Orr  of  South  Carolina  was  elected  Speaker;  and 
Curry  was  assigned  to  the  unimportant  committee 
on  Revolutionary  claims,  whose  membership  never- 
theless included  three  other  important  personages  in 
Owen  Lovejoy,  of  Illinois,  Henry  L.  Dawes,  of 
Massachusetts,  and  Samuel  S.  Cox,  of  Ohio,  later  of 
New  York.  Lovejoy,  the  fanatic  and  fiery  aboli- 
tionist, had  been  moved  twenty  years  before  by  the 
murder  of  his  brother,  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  at  the 
hands  of  a  mob  in  Alton,  Illinois,  to  espouse  the  anti- 
slavery  cause,  which  he  advocated  thenceforth  with 
an  energy,  an  eloquence,  and  a  relentlessness  that 
made  him  conspicuous  among  its  restless  and  resist- 
less protagonists.  Dawes,  like  Curry,  was  serving 
his  first  term.  He  succeeded  Charles  Sumner  as 
Senator  from  Massachusetts,  and  held  conspicuous 
position  in  the  affairs  of  the  country  for  a  period  long 
subsequent  to  the  close  of  the  War  between  the 
States.  Cox  had  been  a  newspaper  editor,  in  which 
position  he  had  achieved  the  soubriquet  of  ''Sunset" 
from  a  glowing  and  iridescent  quality  of  his  editor- 
ials, combined  with  the  initials  of  his  name.  He 
was  a  voluminous  writer  and  an  effective  and  humor- 
ous speaker. 

Curry  makes  record  of  the  fact  that  his  Revolu- 
tionary Claims  Committee  had  little  work  to  do. 
Nevertheless,  he  sought  and  found  other  opportu- 
nities for  work;  and  on  the  10th  of  February,  1858, 
he  made  his  first  appearance  on  the  floor  in  the  pres- 
entation of  a  memorial  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
Alabama  in  favor  of  the  establishment  of  an  armory 
in  Shelby  County,  which  was  referred  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Military  Affairs,  and  ordered  to  be  printed. 
In  the  light  of  later  events,  it  seems  a  significant  and 


''  BLEEDING   KANSAS  "  117 

a  most  ominous  act;  but  there  is  nothing  to  show 
that  Curry,  in  presenting  the  wishes  of  his  State  in 
the  premises,  had  any  anticipation  of  the  early  sub- 
sequent need  of  armories  in  the  South. 

Two  weeks  later,  on  the  23rd  of  February,  he  made 
his  first  set  speech  in  the  House.  It  was  in  the  course 
of  the  Kansas  debate  and  upon  the  Kansas  question. 

It  was  such  a  speech  as  one  would  expect  from  a 
young  Alabamian  of  that  day,  fervid,  intense,  defiant 
and  thrilling  with  the  conviction  that  abolition 
meant  economic  and  social  ruin  to  the  people  of  his 
section.  He  was  speaking  from  the  heart  when  he 
shouted  in  this  maiden  speech: — 

With  a  like  spirit,  in  total  disregard  of  human  suffering, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  with  all  the  fervor  of  hate  and 
fanaticism,  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  in  1844,  gave  utter- 
ance to  the  sentiment:  "Let  the  abolition  of  slavery  come; 
by  whatever  means — by  blood  or  otherwise — let  it  come." 
If  it  did  come,  commerce  would  languish,  factories  would 
stop,  banks  would  suspend,  credit  would  expire,  and 
universal  woe  would  brood  over  this  land.  The  fearful 
panic  now  upon  us  has  impaired  confidence,  produced 
ruin  and  distress,  bankrupted  individuals  and  corporations, 
diminished  trade,  and  inflicted  losses  from  which  twenty 
years  will  not  recover  us;  and  yet  these  consequences  are 
trivial  and  insignificant  compared  with  the  sudden  de- 
struction of  two  thousand  millions  of  property,  the  up- 
rooting of  social  institutions,  and  the  perishing  of  a  nation. 
The  sirocco's  blast,  the  tornado's  sweep,  the  earthquake's 
heavings,  the  ravages  of  the  pestilence,  faintly  foreshadow 
the  appalling  desolation  which  would  ensue  upon  such  a 
catastrophe. 

The  story  of  what  came  to  be  known  in  the  politi- 
cal parlance  of  the  period  as  ''Bleeding  Kansas"  is 


118      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

as  full  of  bitterness  and  woe  as  a  Greek  tragedy. 
The  very  name  reeks  with  the  evil  memories  of  bor- 
der ruffianism,  of  intolerance,  of  the  ferocity  of 
human  hate  growing  out  of  a  quasi-moral  political 
question,  of  Lecompton  constitutions  and  Topeka 
conventions,  while  above  all  looms  the  fanatical  and 
sinister  figure  of  ''Ossawatomie"  Brown. 

Kansas  for  a  number  of  years  had  been  the  battle- 
ground between  the  extension  and  the  restriction  of 
slavery.  As  the  territory  had  advanced  towards  a 
condition  which  entitled  it  to  statehood,  the  contest 
had  increased  in  violence.  The  opponents  of  either 
side  were  constantly  up  and  doing.  The  abolition- 
ists of  New  England  poured  into  the  Territory  their 
hordes  of  subsidized  colonists.  The  slave-holding 
Missourians  sent  bands  of  pro-slavery  settlers  with 
guns  in  their  hands.  With  an  eagerness  that  epit- 
omized the  rapidly  crystallizing  sentiment  of  the  two 
diverging  sections  of  the  Republic,  the  two  sides 
sought  to  possess  themselves  of  the  coming  state. 

Curry  writes  of  the  situation: — 

Douglas  of  Illinois  and  the  Democrats,  to  get  rid  of 
what  was  called  the  "Wilmot  Proviso,"  sought  to  flank 
the  question  by  leaving  it  to  the  people  to  regulate  their 
domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Another  question 
afterwards  arose,  whether  the  "inhabitants  of  a  terri- 
tory while  in  territorial  pupilage  could  abohsh  slavery," 
or  must  that  question  be  determined  by  the  "people" 
assembled  in  convention  to  frame  a  constitution,  their 
organic  law. 

Both  parties  in  Kansas  had  framed  constitutions, 
the  anti-slavery  men  at  Topeka,  in  October,  1855, 
and  the  pro-slavery  men  in  October,  1857;  and  both 


"  BLEEDING   KANSAS  "  119 

parties  were  seeking  the  admission  of  Kansas  as  a 
state  of  the  Union,  each  under  its  respective  con- 
stitution. Curry  favored  its  admission  as  a  state 
''with  or  without  slavery,  as  the  constitution  may 
require,"  but  in  no  uncertain  attitude  as  to  which 
constitution  he  preferred. 

"The  rejection  of  Kansas,  with  the  Lecompton  Con- 
stitution," he  said,  "speaks  the  dissolution  of,  or  sec- 
tionalizes  the  Democratic  party,  which  is  the  strongest 
ligament  that  binds  the  Union  together.  It  will  be  the 
unmistakable  annunciation  that  no  more  slave  States  are 
to  be  admitted  into  this  Union;  that  the  South  is  to  be 
degraded  and  reduced  to  inferiority;  that  there  is  to  be 
no  extension  of  her  limits,  no  enlargement  of  her  boun- 
daries; that  slavery  shall  be  restricted  with  constantly 
narrowing  confines;  that  for  her,  within  this  Union, 
there  is  to  be  no  future  but  bleak,  gloomy,  hopeless 
despair." 

He  dwelt  upon  "the  lamentable  results"  of  aboli- 
tion, as  it  was  sought  to  be  effected;  and  he  expressed 
his  profound  ''conviction  of  the  importance  of  the 
question,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  in- 
volved." He  declared  that  he  but  echoed  the  senti- 
ment of  his  State,  as  authoritatively  expressed  by 
her  General  Assembly,  and  proclaimed  his  deter- 
mination to  follow  her  lead. 

"I  will  not  anticipate  her  course,"  he  continued;  "but 
recognizing  to  its  fullest  extent  the  right  of  secession, 
and  owing  to  her  my  allegiance  and  fealty,  when  she 
calls  I  will  respond;  where  she  goes  I  will  go;  her  people 
shall  be  my  people,  and  her  destiny  my  destiny." 

Thus,  in  the  simple  eloquence  of  scriptural 
phraseology,  he  voiced  the  political  creed  of  the 


120     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

democrats  of  the  school  of  strict  construction  from 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  Randolph  of  Roanoke  and  George 
Mason,  down  through  Calhoun  and  Tyler  to  Breck- 
inridge and  Jefferson  Davis,  with  a  clearness  and  a 
courage  characteristic  alike  of  the  man  and  of  the 
times.  The  battle  call  of  the  abolitionists  for  three 
decades  had  been  "secession,"  not  on  account  of 
the  Constitution,  but  of  slavery.  Wendell  Philhps 
of  Massachusetts  had  said  at  a  meeting  in  Boston, 
in  May,  1849,  "We  confess  that  we  intend  to  trample 
under  foot  the  constitution  of  this  country."  And 
later  he  declared: — 

"There  is  merit  in  the  Republican  party.  It  is  this: 
It  is  the  first  sectional  party  ever  organized  in  this  country. 
*  *  *  It  is  not  national;  it  is  sectional.  It  is  the 
North  arrayed  against  the  South.  *  *  *  The  first 
crack  in  the  iceberg  is  visible;  you  will  yet  hear  it  go  with 
a  crack  through  the  centre. " 

William  Lloyd  Garrison  had  demanded  in  his  pa- 
per, The  Liberator,  in  September,  1855,  "a  Northern 
Confederacy,  with  no  Union  with  slave-holders"; 
and  in  the  same  paper  of  June  20,  1856,  had  de- 
nounced the  United  States  Constitution  as  "a 
covenant  with  death  and  a  league  with  hell."  Rev. 
0.  B.  Frothingham,  in  the  May  of  the  preceding 
year,  had  said:  "He  believed  that  this  Union  ef- 
fectually prevented  them  from  advancing  in  the 
least  degree  the  work  of  the  slave's  redemption.  .  .  . 
As  to  the  word  'Union,'  they  all  knew  it  was  a  politi- 
cal catchword." 

Curry,  to  whom  the  compact  theory  of  our  gov- 
ernment seemed  irrefutable,  was  ready  for  secession 
because  of  a  violated  constitution,  whose  violation 


"  BLEEDING   KANSAS  "  121 

concluded  its  pact,  and  because  he  believed  that 
that  constitution  itself,  in  reserving  to  the  State 
the  powers  not  expressly  delegated  to  the  Union, 
reserved  to  it  the  right,  when  it  saw  fit,  to  end  its 
connection  with  the  Union,  in  the  exercise  of  its  un- 
questionable sovereignty.  That  slavery  itself  was 
a  thing  to  be  gotten  rid  of,  he  doubtless  held  then,  as 
many  other  southern  Democrats  held,  who  yet  sup- 
ported it  as  a  social  institution  that  had  become  so 
inextricably  interwoven  with  the  fabric  of  the  body 
politic,  as  to  be  incapable  of  release  save  by  the 
fatal  operation  called  Caesarian.  Though  in  his  later 
years  his  views  of  slavery  became,  in  the  light  of 
time  and  experience  greatly  modified,  and  he  found 
himself  ''glad  that  it  is  gone,"  and  wondered  "that 
I  and  others  should  have  ever  sanctioned  and  de- 
fended it,"  no  subsequent  event  ever  abated  one 
jot  or  tittle  of  his  faith  in  the  strict  construction  of 
the  Constitution,  and  in  the  doctrine  of  the  rights 
of  the  States,  with  which  the  tremendously  difficult 
question  of  slavery  was  so  intimately  and  apparently 
inextricably  involved.  State  sovereignty  and  the 
right  of  secession  were  boldly  proclaimed  and  ably 
championed  in  this  first  speech  of  his  in  the  halls  of 
Congress.  He  came  at  last,  as  most  others  of  his 
day  and  creed  came,  to  accept  the  judgment  of  arms 
upon  the  question  of  secession;  but  his  belief  in  the 
strict  construction  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  States,  as  has  been  said,  abode 
with  him  as  part  of  his  political  creed,  and  he  re- 
mained a  Jeffersonian  Democrat  unto  the  last. 

"In  the  light  of  subsequent  experience,  quite  apart 
from  constitutional  questions,"  he  wrote  in  his  common- 
place  book   forty   years   afterwards   with   a   significant 


122     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

maintenance  of  the  integrity  of  his  political  thinking, 
"I  put  here  on  record  my  gratitude  that  Kansas  was  not 
cursed  with  the  institution  of  African  slavery." 

This  sentiment  was  a  reasonable  expression  of  the 
feeling  that  had  animated  Mr.  Jefferson  when  he 
sought  to  incorporate  into  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence a  protest  against  the  continuance  of  the 
slave  trade,  and  to  write  into  the  ''Ordinance  of 
'Eighty-seven"  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the 
Northwest  Territory;  that  had  made  John  Marshall 
the  first  President  of  the  Colonization  Society  of 
Virginia;  that  had  caused  George  Mason,  in  the 
Virginia  Convention  of  1788,  having  under  consider- 
ation the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  to 
denounce  that  clause  of  it  which  permitted  the  im- 
portation of  slaves  for  twenty  years;  and  that  in- 
duced General  Robert  E.  Lee  and  a  host  of  other 
Southerners  to  manumit  their  slaves.  The  right  of 
secession,  advocated  by  the  thoughtful  southern 
ante-bellum  Democrat,  was  advocated  for  the  sake 
of  constitutional  liberty;  and  not,  as  in  the  case,  at 
least,  of  the  more  violent  northern  abolitionist,  on 
account  of  slavery. 

Curry's  speech  in  the  Kansas  debate  was  listened 
to  with  marked  interest  and  attention  by  his  Con- 
gressional auditors,  and  it  was  widely  circulated  in 
printed  form  throughout  the  South.  Greeley,  in  the 
Tribune,  recognized  its  ability,  and  pronouncing  it 
"a  strong  speech,"  said  of  its  author:  "He  is  cer- 
tainly a  powerful  addition  to  the  pro-slavery  side 
of  the  House." 

Curry's  habits  of  life  at  this  time  were  character- 
istic of  the  man,  and  go  far  toward  explaining  his 
success  in  Congress  as  well  as  in  his  subsequent 


''  BLEEDING   KANSAS  "  123 

career.  He  was  a  regular  attendant  at  the  E  Street 
Baptist  Church,  whose  pastor  was  Dr.  Samson, 
President  of  Columbian  College.  An  acquaintance 
thus  began  between  the  two  men,  which  ripened 
through  succeeding  years  into  a  valuable  friendship. 
Through  the  influence  of  President  Samson,  Curry- 
was  invited  to  address  the  students  of  the  College. 
The  audience  assembled  in  the  Smithsonian  build- 
ing; and  he  had  the  gratification  of  seeing  among  his 
auditors  the  President  of  the  United  States,  Mr. 
Buchanan;  General  Lewis  Cass,  who  had  been  a 
nominee  of  the  national  democratic  party  for  the 
Presidential  office;  and  Professor  Joseph  Henry, 
whose  work  as  a  physicist  has  left  him  a  greater 
fame  than  that  of  more  than  one  President  of  the 
Union;  and  whose  splendid  biography  is  epitomized 
in  that  of  a  later  great  physicist  no  less  famous,  who 
said  of  Henry  that  "he  never  engaged  in  an  investi- 
gation or  an  enterprise  which  was  to  put  a  dollar  into 
his  own  pocket,  but  aimed  only  at  the  general  good 
of  the  world." 

Curry's  devotion  during  this  session  of  Congress 
to  the  duties  of  his  office  was  diligent  and  conscien- 
tious. He  was  punctual  in  attendance,  and  alert 
and  painstaking  in  his  attention  to  the  public  matters 
which  came  before  the  House.  In  addition,  he 
makes  record  that  ''business  before  the  departments 
was  plentiful;  and  correspondence  was  heavy;  but 
by  preventing  accumulation  of  work,  I  was  never 
behind,  and  rarely  pressed.  In  those  days  members 
of  Congress  had  no  clerks." 

During  this  session  a  bill  was  introduced  granting 
pensions  to  the  soldiers  of  the  War  of  1812.  Curry, 
with  the  well-grounded  principles  of  the  strict  con- 


124      J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

struction  Democrat  of  the  day,   opposed  it  with 
vigor  and  abiUty. 

"No  measure,"  he  said  later,  "so  satisfied  me  of  the 
general  want  of  moral  courage  on  the  part  of  Represen- 
tatives. .  .  .  Congress  now  yields  readily  to  any 
pension  claim,  whether  supported  or  not  by  valid  proof. 
Then  the  House  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  always 
defeated  the  measure ;  but  when  the  Yeas  and  Nays  were 
called,  the  vote  was  different.  Elihu  Washburn,  John 
Sherman,  and  Winter  Davis  among  the  Republicans,  had 
the  courage  of  their  convictions,  and  recorded  themselves 
in  the  negative." 

Convinced  of  the  inexpediency  and  fundamental 
wrong  of  a  system,  which  has  since  that  time  fastened 
itself  with  resistless  and  appalling  power  upon  the 
Government,  he  opposed  the  Pension  Bill  in  an 
elaborate  speech  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. In  this  speech,  which  was  made  on 
April  27,  1858,  he  pointed  out  the  extravagant  pro- 
visions of  the  bill,  and  demonstrated  the  social,  politi- 
cal and  economic  evils  that  may  be  expected  to  flow 
from  the  establishment  and  continuance  of  a  sys- 
tem of  pensions  in  a  democratic  government.  The 
speech  demonstrates  the  results  of  an  extended  in- 
vestigation and  study  of  the  subject,  both  in  an 
historical  and  political-economic  direction;  and 
Curry  himself  subsequently  regarded  it  as  one  of  the 
best  he  ever  made.  ''  Some  whispers  of  discontent," 
he  says,  "were  heard  in  my  district;  but  my  con- 
stituents had  the  good  sense  to  approve." 

As  an  incident  of  this  period  of  his  life,  he  mentions 
with  interest  the  fact  of  hearing  Adelina  Patti  sing. 
She  was  then  but  little  more  than  a  child,  being 
scarcely  seventeen;   but  she  had  aheady  long  been 


"  BLEEDING   KANSAS  "  125 

a  familiar  object  of  admiration  and  delight  to  the 
music-loving  public  of  two  hemispheres,  that  she 
had  charmed  with  her  beauty,  grace  and  artistic 
skill.  Curry,  in  making  mention  of  the  incident 
some  twenty  years  later,  says:  *'She  was  a  young  girl, 
but  gave  abundant  prophecy  of  her  present  fame." 
The  session  of  Congress  continued  until  June  1, 
1858 ;  and  Curry  and  his  family  went  home  to  spend 
the  vacation,  which  lasted  until  the  reassembling 
on  December  6,  1858.  Again  the  Pension  Bill  came 
to  the  front;  and  though  apparently  of  almost  in- 
significant consequence  in  comparison  with  the 
mighty  subjects  of  which  men's  minds  and  hearts 
were  full,  afforded  in  itself  a  theme  for  the  expres- 
sion of  that  constitutional  interpretation  about 
which  the  larger  questions  of  slavery  and  abolition 
revolved.  He  was  promulgating  sound  doctrine 
from  the  democratic  standpoint,  and  that,  so  just, 
that  political  adversaries  like  Henry  Winter  Davis 
could  take  occasion  to  commend  his  position,  when 
he  said  in  further  debate  on  the  bill: — 

It  is  said  by  gentlemen  upon  this  floor  that  no  argu- 
ment as  to  the  expense  is  an  argument  as  to  the  merits 
of  the  bill.  I  take  a  different  position.  Sir,  when  you 
propose  to  tax  the  people  of  this  country  for  the  purpose 
of  conferring  a  gratuity  upon  men  who  are  not  disabled, 
not  needy,  not  objects  of  charity, — for  this  bill  does  not 
discriminate  between  the  wealthy  and  the  necessitous — 
then  I  contend  that  it  is  a  legitimate  line  of  argument 
to  inquire  into  the  expense  under  this  bill,  and  to  hold 
up  to  public  view  and  observation  the  enormous  amount 
which  will  be  required  to  execute  it. 

His  legislative  efforts  as  a  Congressman  were  all 
in  the  direction  of  seeking  to  administer  the  govern- 


126     J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

ment  economically,  prudently,  and  with  due  regard 
to  constitutional  restriction.  On  January  13,  1859, 
he  offered  a  resolution,  which  was  agreed  to,  requir- 
ing the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  furnish  detailed 
information  concerning  the  Navy  Chaplains  ap- 
pointed since  1813.  The  act  seemed  to  be  to  ascer- 
tain whether  any  attempt  was  being  made  to  subject 
non-Episcopal  Chaplains  to  Episcopal  forms;  or 
whether  in  the  religious  practices  of  the  American 
Navy  there  might  be  any  suggestion  of  a  violation 
of  the  spirit  of  constitutional  freedom,  which  had 
found  its  great  inception  in  the  United  States  in 
Jefferson's  immortal  statute. 

Toward  the  latter  part  of  the  month  of  January, 
1859,  he  participated  in  the  then  pending  Consular 
and  Diplomatic  Appropriation  Bill,  asserting  an 
economical  and  democratic  attitude  against  the 
sinecures  and  pretensions  of  ministers  to  unim- 
portant foreign  courts,  and  proposing  to  reduce  ex- 
pense and  curtail  patronage  by  reducing  the  number 
of  foreign  ministers. 

"My  opposition  to  some,  not  all,  of  these  measures," 
he  declared,  "grows  out  of  the  fact  of  their  unnecessary 
expense  and  their  conceded  uselessness." 

It  is  believed  that  no  vote  of  his  can  be  found  re- 
corded that  did  not  favor,  as  opportunity  occurred, 
a  reduction  in  the  number  of  offices,  and  a  cutting 
down  of  appropriations.  On  February  2,  1859, 
when  the  Legislation  Appropriation  Bill  was  under 
discussion,  he  came  to  the  front  with  a  proposition 
to  reduce  expenses  by  putting  an  end  to  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Congressional  Debates.  Undismayed  by 
memories  of  the  reports  of  the  legislative  discussions 


i  i 


BLEEDING   KANSAS  "  127 


which  had  for  so  many  years  engaged  the  talents  of 
Seaton  and  Gales,  and  to  the  abridgment  of  which 
Thomas  H.  Benton  had  not  disdained  to  apply  his 
great  industry  and  ability,  Curry  attacked  the  bill 
by  moving  to  strike  out  an  item  of  $49,333.32  for 
printing  the  Congressional  Globe,  and  for  binding 
the  same;  and  the  further  item  of  $18,046,  "for 
reporting  proceedings."  He  admitted  that  he  had 
very  little  hope  of  the  motion  being  adopted,  but 
said  he  made  it  in  entirely  good  faith.  He  regarded 
the  publication  of  the  debates  of  the  House  as  use- 
less and  costly;  they  crowded  the  mails,  and  were 
never  read. 

"I  believe  there  is  no  expenditure  of  this  Government 
so  useless  and  worthless,"  he  declared,  "as  that  for  the 
publication  of  the  Congressional  Globe.  ...  I  do 
not  propose  to  object  to  paying  for  what  has  already 
been  done,  but  I  propose  to  put  a  stop  to  future  expenses 
of  this  kind." 

On  the  next  day  he  made  another  speech  against 
the  system  of  printing  and  distributing  the  speeches 
of  the  House.  "The  truth  is,"  he  asserted,  'Hhat 
with  few  exceptions,  they  are  made  that  they  may 
be  printed  and  not  that  they  may  be  read." 

A  few  days  later,  Mr.  Francis  P.  Blair  of  Missouri 
moved  the  purchase  of  one  hundred  copies  of  Ben- 
ton's Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  for 
the  use  of  the  Congressional  Library  and  the  libraries 
of  the  two  houses.  Mr.  Garnett  of  Virginia  opposed 
the  resolution,  because  he  thought  it  "wrong  in 
principle,"  and  later  he  found  and  expressed  other 
reasons  of  opposition.  Others  took  part  in  the  dis- 
cussion;   and  Curry  moved  to  amend  Mr.  Blair's 


128     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

resolution  by  adding,  "one  hundred  copies  of  Ap- 
pleton's  edition  of  Calhoun's  Works." 

Mr.  Phelps  of  Missouri  rose  to  a  point  of  order: 
''I  submit,"  said  he,  "that  the  amendment  of  the 
gentleman  from  Alabama  is  out  of  order."  The 
point  of  order  was  overruled;   and  Curry  said: — 

I  have  not  examined  Benton's  abridgment  of  the 
debates  sufficiently  to  test  their  fidelity  and  accuracy. 
I  have,  however,  purchased  a  copy  for  my  own  library. 
But,  sir,  I  have  to  say  that  if  it  is  as  full  of  prejudice, 
and  I  had  almost  said  of  malignity,  as  his  "Thirty  Years 
in  the  Senate,"  I  think  it  ought  to  be  burned  by  the 
common  hangman.  However  that  may  be,  if  Congress 
intends  by  this  special  piece  of  favoritism  to  purchase 
Benton's  Abridgment,  I  think  they  ought  to  purchase, 
at  least  by  way  of  antidote,  Calhoun's  Works. 

To  this  Mr.  Clark  of  Missouri  rephed:^ 

I  am  opposed  to  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman  from 
Alabama.  It  is  with  great  regret,  indeed,  that  I  have 
heard  the  gentleman  allow  himself  to  pronounce  upon 
this  great  work  of  the  country  as  he  has  done.  Sir, 
Colonel  Benton's  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress 
is  a  great  national  work.  Most  gentlemen  present  have 
examined  it,  and  will  bear  me  witness  that  it  is  marked 
with  the  strictest  fidelity  and  accuracy.  I  admit  that 
Mr.  Benton  had  his  partialities,  but  they  were  not 
stronger  than  those  of  the  favorite  of  the  gentleman 
from  Alabama,  Mr.  Calhoun.  They  were  rivals,  and 
have  had  their  day.  Both  were  great  men  of  the  coun- 
try; but  their  works  are  widely  different. 

Mr.  Cochrane  of  New  York  thereupon  injected 
into  the  merry  war  of  books  and  words  this  query: — 

I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman  from  Alabama  whether 


( ( 


BLEEDING   KANSAS  "  129 


Mr.  Calhoun's  Works  are  not  already  in  the  library  of 
Congress? 

Curry  replied:  "They  are,  and  I  hope  gentlemen  will 
read  them  and  improve  their  politics";  to  which  Mr. 
McQueen  of  South  Carolina  added:  "I  will  say  to  the 
gentleman  that  Mr.  Benton's  work  is  also  there." 

Curry's  amendment  was  lost;  and  the  incident, 
trivial  in  itself,  is  related  merely  for  the  sake  of  il- 
lustrating and  emphasizing  that  dominant  and  sig- 
nificant characteristic,  which  lasted  him  through 
life,  of  losing  no  opportunity,  however  small,  of 
seeking  to  impress  his  convictions  concerning  politi- 
cal or  moral  righteousness  and  truth  upon  the  minds 
of  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 

On  February  24,  1859,  he  made  an  extended 
speech  on  expenditures  and  the  tariff,  advocating 
the  democratic  doctrine  of  "retrenchment  and 
economy,"  and  inveighing  against  "onerous  taxes," 
and  the  injustice  and  unconstitutionality  of  a  "pro- 
tective" tariff.  The  closing  sentence  of  this  speech 
is  worthy  of  quotation,  as  an  epitome  of  the  political 
doctrines  of  the  State-rights  democracy  of  the 
period : — 

Sir,  there  is  virtue,  power,  victory,  invincibility  yet  in 
Democratic  principles;  but  to  secure  and  merit  success 
there  must  be  a  self-lustration  and  a  speedy  return  to 
the  rigid  State-rights  and  free-trade  principles  of  John 
Taylor,  and  Jefferson,  of  Polk  and  Pierce,  of  Calhoun 
and  Woodbury.  On  such  alone  can  the  Government  be 
safely  administered,  and  on  such  alone  depend  our 
security  and  prosperity. 

It  was  the  voice  of  one,  invoking  in  the  wilderness, 
among  others  more  distinguished,  the  now  almost 


130      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

forgotten  names  and  obsolete  political  philosophy 
of  John  Taylor  of  Caroline,  the  Virginian,  and  of 
Levi  Woodbury,  the  great  defender  of  the  Inde- 
pendent Treasury  System,  and  ''the  rock  of  New 
England  democracy." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

A   FIRST   AND    LAST  ALLEGIANCE 

"When  Congress  met  in  December,  1859,"  Curry- 
makes  record  at  a  later  period,  "the  two  parties,  Demo- 
cratic and  Republican,  were  nearly  balanced,  a  handful 
of  'Americans'  holding  the  control.  John  Sherman  and 
Thomas  S.  Bocock  were  the  Republican  and  Democratic 
candidates  for  Speaker,  and  neither  could  get  the  re- 
quired majority.  During  the  autumn  John  Brown  had 
made  his  incendiary  raid  into  Virginia,  and  had  been 
arrested,  tried  and  hung.  The  North  generally  sympa- 
thized with  the  fanatical  felon.  One  Richard  Rowan 
Helper  of  North  Carolina  had  published  a  pamphlet  on 
Slavery,  unjust  to  the  South,  which  Republican  members 
had  endorsed  and  circulated.  Passions  were  much  in- 
flamed. Sectional  issues  were  assuming  shape,  and  sec- 
tionalizing  parties.  The  elements  were  brewing  for  a 
gigantic  and  bloody  contest.  During  the  ballotings  while 
the  Clerk  presided,  many  inflammatory  speeches  were 
made;  and  there  were  very  nearly  several  times,  personal 
collisions.  On  December  10th,  I  spoke  on  the  Progress 
of  Anti-slaveryism,  trying  to  present  a  calm  and  philo- 
sophical view  of  the  subject.  My  speech,  temperate  in 
language  but  firm  and  argumentative,  was  widely  copied, 
and  I  received  many  letters  asking  for  copies." 

The  times  were  out  of  joint,  and  temperance  of 
thought  and  speech  were  ceasing  to  dominate  men's 
minds.  Slavery,  which  had  agitated  the  country 
for  more  than  two  decades,  as  the  subject  of  political 
discussion,  and  around  which  as  an  object  revolved 

131 


132      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

great  questions  of  constitutional  construction  and 
interpretation,  was  now  not  only  a  burning  but  a 
flaming  issue.  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  had 
written,  and  her  publishers  had  printed  and  cir- 
culated in  America  more  than  half  a  million  copies 
of  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  the  most  ingenious  and 
powerful  political  pamphlet  in  its  effect  ever  com- 
posed in  the  western  hemisphere.  Judge  Taney  and 
a  majority  of  the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  the 
Dred  Scott  case  in  favor  of  the  pursuing  master  and 
against  the  recalcitrant  slave  in  the  free-state,  and 
Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  many 
able  jurisprudents  of  New  England,  had  delivered 
a  dissenting  opinion  in  the  same  great  case,  which 
had  given  pause  to  the  purpose  and  daunted  the 
intellectual  courage  of  many  of  the  most  thoughtful 
pro-slavery  advocates;  Hinton  R.  Helper,  a  non- 
slave  holding  Southerner,  had  stirred  the  passions 
and  inflamed  the  hearts  of  the  North  with  a  mighty 
exposition  of  the  wrongs  experienced  by  the  poor 
white  man  of  the  South  by  reason  of  negro-slavery, 
in  his  "Impending  Crisis,"  a  complementary  and 
more  bitter  indictment  of  slavery  even  than  Mrs. 
Stowe's  book;  "Bleeding  Kansas"  had  held  the 
centre  of  the  political  stage  in  a  passionate  and 
ferocious  struggle  over  two  constitutions;  and  out 
of  it  John  Brown  had  emerged  in  the  darkness 
of  abolition  secrecy,  with  his  murderous  pikes  of 
"freedom"  in  the  hands  of  his  fugitive  slave-fol- 
lowers; and  had  been  captured  in  his  assault  upon 
the  United  States  Government  Arsenal  at  Harper's 
Ferry  by  Federal  troops,  and  hung  for  treason  and 
inciting  insurrection,  by  the  authorities  of  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Virginia.     The  quasi-moral  question 


A   FIRST   AND   LAST   ALLEGIANCE     133 

of  slavery,  injected  into  the  political  body  of  the 
times  had  served,  as  such  questions  in  politics  in- 
variably serve,  to  stir  the  fiercest  and  most  elemental 
passions  of  men.  Against  the  abolition  slogan,  that 
because  of  slavery  the  Federal  Constitution  was  ''a 
league  with  death  and  a  covenant  with  hell,"  the 
strict  construction  South  continued  to  chant  its 
bold  appeal  to  the  Constitution  itself.  "After  all, 
it  is  not  the  Union — the  Union  alone  upon  which 
the  reflecting  man  of  this  country  bases  his  hopes 
and  rests  his  affections.  With  him  the  Union  is 
secondary  in  importance  to  the  principles  it  was  de- 
signed to  perpetuate  and  establish,"  was  the  thought 
of  the  Cotton  States  democrat,  as  voiced  a  short 
time  before  by  a  representative  from  Curry's  own 
State.  The  "irrepressible  conflict"  loomed  porten- 
tous and  dreadful  in  the  almost  immediate  future. 

In  Curry's  speech,  above  referred  to,  made  on  the 
floor  of  the  House  five  days  after  its  meeting  on 
December  5th,  1859,  he  enlarged  upon  the  desperate 
temper  of  the  times,  the  tremendous  growth  of 
abolition  sentiment,  and  the  logical  and  inevitable 
results  to  flow  from  existing  conditions: — 

"If  I  may  be  allowed  to  make  a  personal  allusion,"  he 
said,  "in  1844  I  myself  stood  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  heard 
a  speech  of  James  G.  Birney,  the  Liberty-party  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  when  there  was  hardly  a  baker's 
dozen  present  to  share  with  him  his  liberty-loving  senti- 
ments; and  some  of  those  who  were  there  were,  like 
myself,  attracted  from  curiosity  to  hear  a  speech  upon 
such  a  subject  from  a  candidate  for  such  a  position.  It 
is  thus  that  anti-slaveryism  has  swelled,  enlarged,  and 
grown,  until  at  the  last  presidential  election,  a  mere 
political  adventurer,  unknown  to  the  multitude,  without 


134      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

political  antecedents,  received  one  million  four  hundred 
thousand  votes  in  Northern  States.  And  yet  you  tell 
us,  the  distinguished  gentleman  from  Ohio  (Mr.  Corwin) 
told  us,  that  we  need  not  have  any  apprehension  or  feel 
any  special  alarm." 

Curry's  characterization  of  John  C.  Fremont  is 
scarcely  consistent  with  his  boast  of  the  temperance 
to  be  found  in  the  language  of  this  speech.  Fremont 
was  already  a  distinguished  man,  even  though  an 
"adventurer"  in  the  lofty  sense  of  the  word,  when 
the  young  Republican  party  of  the  country  had  made 
him  its  standard-bearer  in  1856;  and  had,  inde- 
pendent of  his  "adventures,"  by  that  strange  magic 
that  often  moves  the  minds  of  democracies,  outside 
of  political  principles,  won  the  hearts  of  many  of 
the  old  Jacksonian  Democrats  by  winning  the  hand 
of  Jessie  Benton,  the  daughter  of  the  stout  Mis- 
sourian  who  had,  independent  and  alone,  in  the 
earlier  days  of  the  century  carried  his  "expunging 
resolutions"  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  wiped 
from  the  august  record  of  that  body  the  condemna- 
tion of  his  great  chieftain,  Andrew  Jackson.  Yet, 
after  all  is  said,  under  the  influence  of  those  com- 
pelling days  the  one  million  four  hundred  thousand 
votes  for  Fremont  in  the  Northern  States  in  1856 
would  have  been  given  for  a  graven  unage,  standing 
for  what  he  stood  for. 

"Damn  you,  sir,"  said  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke, 
in  response  to  the  proffered  thanks  from  the  hustings 
of  one  of  his  neighbors  for  whom  as  a  party  candidate 
he  had  just  voted,  and  to  whom  he  had  declined 
to  speak  for  twenty  years,  "I  am  not  voting  for  you, 
but  for  the  Democratic  party." 

Curry's  prognosis  was   correct,   however  intem- 


A   FIRST   AND   LAST   ALLEGIANCE     135 

perate  his  description  of  Fremont;  and  it  was  all  in 
vain  to  his  prophetic  soul  that  Corwin  and  his  com- 
peers proclaimed  "Peace!  peace!"  when  there  was 
no  peace.  He  saw  with  the  clearness  of  vision,  that 
was  not  given  to  all  who  thought  as  he  thought,  to 
see,  that  ''the  vitalizing,  animating  principle  of  the 
Republican  party  is  opposition  to  slavery."  But 
with  this  clarity  of  foresight,  he  perceived  none  the 
less  the  other  side, — the  grave  alternative, — equally 
clearly;  and  portrayed  that  perception,  and  his  al- 
legiance to  its  consequences,  with  the  high  courage 
that  he  never  failed,  when  needful,  to  exhibit. 

"Every  separate  community,"  he  continued,  "must  be 
able  to  protect  itself.  Power  must  be  met  by  power. 
If  the  majority  can  control  this  government,  interpreting 
the  Constitution  at  its  will,  then  this  government  is  a 
despotism.  Whether  wise  or  unwise,  whether  merciful  or 
cruel,  it  is  a  despotism  still. 

"Mr.  Clerk,  this  power  of  self-protection,  according  to 
my  judgment  and  my  theory  of  politics,  resides  in  each 
State.  Each  has  the  right  of  secession,  the  right  of 
interposition,  for  the  arrest  of  evils  within  its  limits. 

•         •         « 

"  Mr.  Clerk,  if  our  .  .  .  friends  .  .  .  (in  Con- 
gress) ...  be  not  able  to  interpose  for  the  security 
of  the  South,  and  for  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution, 
I,  for  one,  shall  counsel  immediate  and  effective  resistance, 
and  shall  urge  the  people  to  fling  themselves  upon  the 
reserved  rights  and  the  inalienable  sovereignty  of  the 
State  to  which  I  owe  my  first  and  last  allegiance."  (Ap- 
plause.) 

The  tension  of  the  times  was  indicated  in  the 
fierce  and  protracted  struggle  over  the  Speakership 
of  the  House,  which  continued  for  eight  weeks  before 


136      J   L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

a  Speaker  was  finally  chosen.  The  Republicans 
had  a  plurality  over  the  Democrats,  but  the  Know- 
Nothings  held  the  balance  of  power.  John  Sherman 
of  Ohio,  the  Republican  candidate  for  Speaker,  and 
Thomas  S.  Bocock  of  Virginia,  the  Democratic  can- 
didate, were  appropriate  and  fit  representatives  of 
their  respective  parties  on  the  great  issue;  and  the 
debates,  that  at  times  grew  from  anger  to  ferocity, 
circled  about  the  John  Brown  raid  and  Helper's 
abolitionist  "Impending  Crisis."  Sherman  came  at 
one  time  within  three  votes  of  election;  but  both 
he  and  Bocock  failed  in  the  conclusion,  and  William 
Pennington,  of  New  Jersey,  a  moderate  Republican, 
was  elected  to  the  Speakership.  Sherman  became 
later  one  of  the  most  distinguished  leaders  of  his 
party;  while  Bocock  was,  in  1861,  elected  a  member 
of  the  first  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States,  and 
upon  its  permanent  organization  became  its  Speaker. 
A  short  time  before  his  death  in  1903,  Curry,  in 
allusion  to  what  he  calls  "a,  pleasant  correspondence 
and  interview  with  Mr.  Edwards  Pierrepont,  our 
Minister  to  England,"  growing  out  of  his  speech 
above  referred  to,  and  doubtless  in  extenuation  of 
its  note  of  certainty,  says: — 

In  after  years,  the  decade  having  passed,  I  sent  him 
(Mr.  Pierrepont)  a  speech  made  before  the  Georgia 
legislature,  in  which  I  said  that  the  man  or  woman, 
who  assumed  to  understand  and  provide  an  adequate 
remedy  for  the  negro  problem  was  a  fanatic  or  a  fool. 
In  reply  he  asked  leave  to  amend  by  striking  out  "or" 
and  inserting  "and." 

"Southern  members,"  wrote  Curry,  in  1876,  concern- 
ing these  stirring  events,  "were  generally  too  violent 
and  personally  denunciatory.     Some  attained  a  cheap 


A   FIRST   AND   LAST   ALLEGIANCE    137 

newspaper  notoriety  by  attacks  on  Northern  representa- 
tives; and,  I  doubt  not,  enhanced  the  cruelties  of  the 
war,  as  many  of  those  representatives  remembered  the 
bitter  words,  and  thirsted  for  revenge." 

He  concludes  his  account  of  the  struggle  over  the 
Speakership,  in  which  as  a  democratic  teller,  he 
kept  the  tally-sheet  of  the  votes,  with  the  statement 
that  Governor  Pennington,  the  successful  candidate, 
was  "a  weak  old  man,"  and  ''had  no  qualifications 
for  the  position." 

In  the  appointment  of  committees,  Curry  was  put 
on  that  of  Naval  Affairs,  the  chairman  of  which  was 
Mr.  Schuyler  Colfax  of  Indiana;  "and  was  thus," 
he  says,  "thrown  into  pleasant  relations  with  such 
officers  as  Buchanan,  Dahlgren,  Magruder,  etc." 

Curry's  fame  as  a  debater  on  the  floor  of  the  House 
became  well  established  during  this  time;  and  when 
a  resolution  of  censure  against  the  President  was 
introduced  in  that  body,  growing  out  of  the  sale  of 
Fort  Snelling,  Mr.  Buchanan  sent  for  Curry  and  de- 
sired him  to  undertake  his  defense  against  the  ac- 
cusation contained  in  the  resolution.  This  Curry 
made  ready  to  do;  and  the  notes  for  his  speech  pre- 
pared for  the  occasion,  but  never  used,  because  the 
matter  was  not  pressed,  were  found  among  his  papers 
after  his  death. 

On  February  16,  1860,  he  submitted  a  resolution, 
that  was  unanimously  agreed  to,  instructing  the 
Committee  on  Accounts  to  inquire  into  the  expedi- 
ency of  some  additional  legislation  securing  greater 
accountability  and  economy  in  the  disbursement  of 
the  contingent  fund.  With  a  high  sense  of  his 
representative  responsibility,  he  remained  a  "watch- 
dog of  the  Treasury"  during  his  whole  stay  in  Con- 


138     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

gress.  He  was  ever  eager  in  seeking  the  enforce- 
ment of  an  economic  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment, so  long  as  he  remained  in  it  and  of  it,  which 
he  nevertheless  showed  himself  ready  to  abandon, 
and  if  necessary  to  destroy,  for  the  sake  of  a  funda- 
mental principle. 

On  March  14,  following,  he  addressed  the  House 
on  the  Constitutional  Rights  of  the  States  in  the 
Territories,  discussing  Slavery,  State  Sovereignty,  the 
powers  of  Congress  in  the  Territories,  "Squatter  Sov- 
ereignty," and  all  the  host  of  incidental  matters  that 
garnish  the  history  of  that  tremendous  epoch. 

"African  slavery,"  he  said,  "is  now  a  great  fact — a 
political,  social,  industrial,  humanitarian  fact.  Its  chief 
product  is  'King,'  and  freights  northern  vessels,  drives 
northern  machinery,  feeds  northern  laborers,  and  clothes 
the  entire  population.  Northern  no  less  than  Southern 
capital  and  labor  are  dependent  in  great  degree  upon  it; 
and  these  results  were  wholly  unanticipated  by  the  good 
men  who  are  so  industriously  persuaded  as  clouds  of 
witnesses  against  the  institution." 

He  spoke  of  it,  and  thought  of  it,  and  maintained 
it,  and  fortified  it  as  an  "institution,"  with  the  logic 
and  the  eloquence  of  profound  and  patriotic  con- 
viction; deeming  it  as  Mr.  Calhoun  described  it: 
"What  is  called  slavery  is,  in  reality,  a  political  in- 
stitution, essential  to  the  peace,  safety  and  prosperity 
of  those  States  of  the  Union  in  which  it  exists." 
Before  he  was  ten  years  older  Curry  utterly  aban- 
doned this  theory  of  slavery  and  came  to  regard  it 
as  an  economic  curse  from  which  Southern  society 
was  happily  relieved. 

In  his  speech  of  March  14  he  exhibited  an  unusual 
power  of  eloquence  and  ability;   and  at  the  end  of 


A   FIRST   AND   LAST   ALLEGIANCE    139 

his  hour,  his  time  was  extended  by  unanimous  con- 
sent, in  order  that  he  might  go  on.  He  continued 
for  some  while  longer,  with  an  address  of  ever  grow- 
ing vigor  and  force,  which  found  its  peroration  in  a 
stu-ring  allusion  to  the  refusal  of  the  Republican 
party  to  admit  Kansas  into  the  Union  under  the 
Lecompton  constitution. 

This  speech  attracted  especial  attention  to  him 
as  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  Southern  representatives 
in  Congress;  and  was  so  disturbing  in  its  effects 
upon  the  Douglas,  or  ''Anti-Lecompton"  Demo- 
crats, of  whom  there  were  then  the  ill-boding  number 
of  thirteen  in  the  House,  that  the  Mobile  Register, 
the  leading  Douglas  newspaper  in  the  South,  edited 
by  the  Honorable  John  Forsythe,  devoted  eight  or 
ten  successive  articles  to  an  elaborate  reply. 

A  slight  incident  in  a  man's  career  will  often  serve 
to  illustrate  his  character  more  than  many  of  his 
most  ambitious  acts.  On  June  4,  1860,  Curry  op- 
posed the  payment  to  the  grandchildren  of  a  certain 
Revolutionary  officer  of  a  sum  of  money  that  had 
been  voted  him  by  Congress,  but  not  paid.  He 
said:  "I  have  examined  a  great  many  of  these 
Revolutionary  claims,  and  I  have  never  found  a  just 
one  yet."  His  idea  seemed  to  be  that  of  the  Texas 
judge,  who  replied,  to  the  plea  of  the  young  lawyer 
defending  the  criminal,  to  the  effect  that  it  was 
better  for  ninety-nine  guilty  men  to  escape  than  for 
one  innocent  person  to  suffer,  with  the  sententious 
observation  that  the  ninety-nine  guilty  ones  had 
''already  escaped."  Curry  thought  that  the  right- 
eous Revolutionary  claims  had  long  since  been  paid. 
Upon  learning  that  the  children  of  the  officer  were 
dead,  he  asserted:   "Then  his  grandchildren,  in  this 


140     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

claim  are  speculating  on  the  patriotism  of  their 
ancestor." 

But  in  the  same  month,  in  kindly  and  striking 
contrast  with  this  stern  attitude  of  mind,  we  find 
him,  in  his  last  utterance  of  the  session,  saying: — 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  other  day  I  objected  to  a  bill  reported 
by  the  gentleman  from  New  Hampshire  from  the  Com- 
mittee of  Claims,  because  the  report  stated  no  facts.  On 
examination  of  the  Senate  report,  I  find  that  the  facts 
are  fully  stated;  and  as  I  did  injustice  to  a  very  worthy 
old  man,  as  I  think,  I  would  like  very  much,  if  the  House 
will  indulge  me,  to  repair  the  wrong  I  have  done  him. 

The  House  adjourned  June  18th,  1860,  with 
''bleeding  Kansas  "still  a  territory,  and  Slave  State 
and  Free  State  confronting  each  the  other,  in  fierce 
hostility.  Curry,  travelling  homeward  through  Ten- 
nessee, reached  Talladega  on  June  27th,  the  day 
before  the  withdrawing  delegates  from  the  Demo- 
cratic Charleston  Convention  gathered  in  Baltimore, 
and  nominated  Breckinridge  and  Lane  as  the  can- 
didates of  the  states  rights  and  slavery  cotton  states 
Democracy. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   DAWN   OF   WAR 

Madame  De  Remusat  has  recorded  the  striking 
saying  of  the  great  French  Emperor,  that  "poHtical 
hatred  is  Uke  a  pair  of  spectacles, — one  sees  every- 
body, every  opinion  or  every  sentiment,  only  through 
the  glass  of  one's  passions."  To  such  a  pitch  had 
political  excitement  risen  in  1860,  that  Napoleon's 
cynicism  had  become  an  expression  of  commonplace 
truth. 

Nearly  two  months  before  the  adjournment  of 
Congress,  the  Democratic  National  Convention  had 
met  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  The  division 
of  the  country  into  the  sections  which  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  anticipated  from  the  passage  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  now  found  its  reproduction  in  the 
council  chamber  of  Democracy  itself.  The  two  fac- 
tions in  the  party,  re-affirming  each  the  strict  con- 
struction doctrines  of  many  previous  Democratic 
platforms,  aligned  themselves  sectionally  by  North 
and  South  upon  the  questions  of  Douglas'  "Popular 
Sovereignty,"  the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  the  right  of 
Congress  or  of  Territorial  legislatures  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  the  Territories.  After  a  bitter  and  mo- 
mentous struggle,  in  which  the  few  Northern  anti- 
Douglas  delegates  out-heroded  Herod  in  their  op- 
position to  ''Squatter  Sovereignty,"  the  Convention 
adopted  the  Douglas  platform,  and  after  a  prolonged 
session  and  an  adjournment  to  Baltimore,  nominated 

141 


142     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 


a 


the  Little  Giant"  of  Illinois  as  the  party's  can- 
didate for  President,  with  Herschel  V.  Johnson  of 
Georgia  as  his  running  mate;  while  with  vociferous 
insistence  Benjamin  F.  Butler  and  Caleb  Gushing  of 
Massachusetts  continued  to  cast  their  votes  for 
President  for  Jefferson  Davis  of  Mississippi. 

The  Breckinridge  wing  of  the  party,  ten  days 
later,  met  also  in  Baltimore,  and  nominated  Breck- 
inridge and  Lane.  The  Constitutional  Union  party, 
the  remnant  of  the  former  American  or  "Know- 
Nothing"  organization,  still  staggering  under  the 
deadly  blow  dealt  it  in  Virginia,  in  1855,  by  Henry 
A.  Wise,  had  in  the  preceding  month  met,  also  in 
Baltimore,  and  with  what  seems  in  the  retrospect 
almost  such  a  sense  of  humor  as  was  possessed  by 
the  jester  who  defined  a  political  platform  as  "some- 
thing to  get  on  by,"  had  nominated  Bell  and  Everett, 
on  the  glittering  and  general  proposition  that  the 
decrepit  party  stood  for  "The  Constitution  of  the 
Country,  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  laws." 

In  Massachusetts  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic"  was  taking  form  in  an  abolitionist 
woman's  brain;  while  in  Louisiana  a  young  school- 
teacher was  dreaming  of  the  "  Marsellaise "  of  the 
Confederacy.  Within  a  year  after  the  Whig-Know- 
Nothing-Constitutional  Party  sought  to  still  ele- 
mental passions  with  phrases,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward 
Howe  had  written  the  greatest  political  lyric  of 
America : — 

Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of 

the  Lord: 
He  is  trampling  out  the  vintage  where  his  grapes 

of  wrath  are  stored, 


THE   DAWN   OF   WAR  143 

He  has  loosed  the  fateful  lightnings  of  his  ter- 
rible swift  sword — 
His  truth  is  marching  on; 

and  James  Ryder  Randall  had  put  into  words,  and 
the  Virginian  Gary  girls  had  put  into  music,  the 
soul  of  war;  and  a  new-born  and  short-lived  nation 
was  chanting  in  the  South: — 

The  despot's  heel  is  on  thy  shore, 

Maryland,  my  Maryland! 
His  torch  is  at  thy  temple  door, 

Maryland,  my  Maryland! 

For  the  young  and  aggressive  party  of  anti- 
slavery,  and  of  loose  construction,  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
set  the  pace  in  a  series  of  tremendous  debates  for 
the  Senatorship  in  Hlinois,  two  years  before,  in 
which  he  had  nevertheless  gone  down  in  temporary 
defeat  before  the  arguments  and  eloquence  of 
Douglas.  But  the  logic  of  Lincoln's  reiterated  as- 
sertion in  that  great  debate,  that  the  country  could 
not  continue  "half-slave  and  half -free,"  was  now 
mingling  with  the  mighty  passions  that  had  sprung 
out  of  the  John  Brown  episode.  There  was  no 
evasion  nor  dissension  in  the  vigorous  enunciation 
of  political  principles,  written  into  the  Republican 
platform  of  1860,  when  its  convention  assembled  in 
May,  at  Chicago,  and  nominated  as  its  candidates 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  Hannibal  Hamlin.  This  doc- 
ument proclaimed  in  the  confident  notes  of  an  un- 
mistakable purpose,  a  loose  construction  of  the 
Federal  Constitution.  It  appealed  to  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  itself  in  defence  of  the  freedom 
and  equality  of  all  men;  with  a  brave  indifference 
to  the  memories  of  the  Hartford  Convention,  and 


144      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

of  the  outspoken  disloyalty  of  the  earlier  abolition- 
ists, it  charged  the  Democracy  with  advocating  and 
threatening  disunion;  and  it  pronounced  for  the 
freedom  of  all  men  in  the  Territories,  and  adopted 
the  Federalist  doctrines  of  Protection  and  of  In- 
ternal Improvements. 

Out  of  the  ruck  and  turmoil  of  it  all  emerged 
darkly  the  swart  face  and  ominous  figure  of  the  negro 
slave.  The  platform  of  the  Union  party  evaded  the 
vision,  and  ignored  its  imminent  presence.  The 
Douglas  democracy,  with  an  illogical  and  unmain- 
tainable platform,  left  the  negro  question  like 
Mahomet's  coffin,  swung  midway  between  heaven 
and  earth,  while  it  laid  the  responsibility  which  in- 
volved the  decision  of  the  negro's  fate  upon  the 
people  in  the  Territories,  or  upon  the  people  of  the 
States  indifferently, — or  anywhere,  indeed,  except 
where  the  Cotton  States  democrats  reasonably 
placed  it  in  their  platform, — upon  the  Constitution 
and  the  Democratic  party. 

Opposed  to  these  three  divisions  of  the  voters  into 
political  parties,  stood  with  unwavering  front  and 
indomitable  courage  the  young  Republicans,  upon 
a  platform  which  declared  its  set  and  relentless  pur- 
pose of  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  Territories  at  all 
hazards,  and  at  whatever  stake;  and  whose  rank 
and  file  were  stirred  to  high  passion  by  the  flaming 
spirit  of  abolitionism. 

When  the  election  came  in  November,  every  Free 
State,  save  one,  chose  Republican  electors;  while 
most  of  the  Southern  States  voted  for  Breckinridge. 
It  was  the  logical  and  inevitable  conclusion.  There 
was  no  time  or  place  for  the  midway  business  of  Doug- 
lasism,  or  for  the  evasions  of  the  ''Know-Nothings." 


THE   DAWN   OF   WAK  145 

Curry,  naturally,  with  his  firmly  fixed  political 
principles  and  consistent  antecedents,  went  with  the 
Breckinridge  democracy.  He  was  not  of  Judge 
Douglas'  political  stripe;  and  he  hardly  admired 
him  as  a  man. 

"He  was  an  able  debater,"  Curry  writes  of  him,  "with 
strong  native  powers,  but  without  wide  culture.  In  his 
tastes  and  associations  he  was  social  and  democratic; 
and,  as  a  hon  vivant,  his  intemperance  led  his  associates 
astray." 

In  Alabama,  ''as  in  duty  bound  and  from  con- 
viction" Curry  entered  actively  into  the  Presidential 
canvass.  He  spoke  not  only  in  his  own  district, 
but  in  Greensboro,  Marion,  Selma,  and  other  places. 
In  November,  following  the  date  of  the  popular 
election,  he  addressed  the  people  in  the  Methodist 
church  at  Talladega  on  "The  Perils  and  Duty  of  the 
South."  In  this  address,  he  advised  and  counselled 
the  secession  of  the  State,  as  the  only  logical  and 
sufficient  remedy  under  the  Constitution  for  existing 
evils.  The  next  day  he  set  out  for  Washington,  in 
order  to  be  present  at  the  opening  of  Congress. 

"Little  else  was  thought  or  talked  about,"  he  writes 
of  this  period,  "than  the  threatened  secession  of  the 
slave-holding  states.  The  debates  in  Congress  were 
excited  and  inflammatory, — menacing,  not  pacific;  parti- 
san, not  statesmanlike.  Few  realized  the  criticalness  of 
the  situation,  or  seemed  to  forecast  the  consequences. 
Few  at  the  North  credited  the  intense  earnestness  of  the 
South.  When  the  telegram  was  received  that  South 
Carolina  had  seceded,  it  met  with  derisive  laughter  from 
the  Republican  side.  Oxenstiern's  advice  to  his  son,  to 
travel  and  see  with  how  little  wisdom  the  world  was 
governed,  had  a  painful  verification." 


146      J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

On  December  13th,  Curry  objected  to  the  intro- 
duction of  a  resolution  by  Morris  of  lUinois  on  "the 
Perpetuity  of  the  Union."  His  objection  was  to  the 
peril  that  stood  in  the  imminent  breach.  Five  days 
later,  he  objected  to  the  introduction  of  a  bill  grant- 
ing pensions  to  soldiers  of  the  War  of  1812.  This 
objection  harked  back  to  first  principles.  He  was 
ever  seeking  to  uphold,  both  in  great  things  and  in 
small,  the  constitutions  of  his  country,  as  he  con- 
strued them. 

But  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  was  about  to  be 
called  into  tremendous  question :  and  other  pensions 
than  those  of  the  War  of  1812  lay  in  the  near  shadow 
of  coming  events.  Standing  at  the  parting  of  the 
ways,  he  could  look  back  at  his  career  in  the  National 
House  of  Representatives  with  a  sense  of  having 
kept  the  faith.  His  period  of  service  in  Congress 
extended  from  December  7,  1857,  to  January  31, 
1861.  During  that  period  the  eager  young  Ala- 
bamian  had  stood  in  his  high  representative  office 
for  the  continuance  of  slavery  as  an  "institution" 
under  the  constitution,  into  which  it  had  been 
written;  for  State  Rights  according  to  his  strict 
interpretation  of  the  instrument;  for  open  terri- 
tories, for  economy  in  appropriations  and  expen- 
ditures, for  a  reduction  of  the  number  of  sinecures; 
and  for  the  barring  of  opportunities  to  what  a  later 
American  political  vernacular  has  given  the  sinister 
name  of  "graft."  He  had  stood  too  for  a  strict  inter- 
pretation of  the  Constitution  at  all  points;  and  he 
had  opposed  protectionism,  and  advocated  a  tariff 
fairly  adjusted  to  support  a  national  government, 
honestly  and  economically  administered. 

"Sunset"  Cox  in  his  "Three  Decades  of  Federal 


THE   DAWN   OF   WAR  147 

Legislation,"  seeking  to  depict  his  Congressional 
fellow-members,  each  with  a  few  light  lines,  has 
dealt  with  him  and  Pugh,  one  of  his  colleagues  from 
Alabama,  together,  in  the  succinct  paragraph: 
"For  subtle  ratiocination  of  the  Calhoun  pattern, 
there  was  Pugh  of  Alabama,  who  had  all  the  pith 
without  the  artistic  polish  of  his  colleague,  Curry"; 
and  a  later  commentator  in  the  Macon,  Georgia, 
Telegraph,  has  said  of  him: — 

At  a  period  just  preceding  the  War  he  was  justly  con- 
sidered the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives. The  records  of  Congress  glow  with  his  brilliant 
and  patriotic  appeals  in  behalf  of  Southern  rights  and 
institutions. 

On  December  20,  1860,  to  the  "derisive  laugh- 
ter" of  the  Repubhcan  members  of  the  House,  South 
CaroHna,  with  grim  memories  of  "Nullification"  and 
of  "the  Bloody  Proclamation,"  seceded  from  the 
Union  under  what  she  had  always  conceived  to  be 
her  constitutional  and  unsurrendered  right.  On  the 
28th  of  that  month,  Curry  went  to  Annapohs  as  the 
accredited  representative  of  Alabama,  to  present  his 
credentials  to  the  Governor  of  that  State,  and  to 
consult  with  him  concerning  the  cooperation  of  the 
two  States  with  respect  to  their  future  welfare. 

The  Governor  of  Maryland  was  absent  from  the 
capital  at  the  time  of  Curry's  visit;  and  the  latter 
left  a  communication  in  writing,  to  which  his  excel- 
lency replied  through  the  newspapers,  without  giving 
the  public  an  opportunity  to  read  Curry's  letter  with 
the  reply.  Nothing  came  of  the  little  adventure; 
but  the  story  of  the  episode  is  preserved  in  the  corre- 
spondence and  in  Curry's  report  of  his  visit  to  the 


148      J.  L.  M.  CUBRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

capital  of  Maryland,  all  of  which  are  published  in 
the  ''Debates"  of  the  Alabama  Secession  Con- 
vention. 

On  January  1,  1861,  Curry  left  Washington,  en 
route  for  Montgomery,  to  be  present  at  the  sessions 
of  the  Alabama  Convention;  and  at  various  places 
on  the  way  he  made  speeches  and  received  ovations 
at  the  hands  of  multitudes.  On  January  7th,  the 
Convention  assembled,  and  was  opened  with  prayer 
by  the  Reverend  Basil  Manly.  Curry  was  invited 
to  a  seat  on  the  platform;  and  three  days  later  he 
and  his  colleague,  Mr.  Pugh,  in  response  to  a  resolu- 
tion of  the  Convention,  submitted  to  the  body  a 
communication  stating  the  purposes  of  the  new 
Republican  government  of  Washington  as  antici- 
pated by  the  writers.  On  the  following  day,  January 
11,  1861,  the  Convention  adopted  an  ordinance  of 
secession  by  a  vote  of  61  to  39. 

''The  intense  earnestness  of  the  people"  over  this 
grave  and  momentous  action  of  their  representatives, 
unappreciated,  as  Curry  states,  at  the  North,  was 
illustrated  in  the  capital  city  of  Alabama  and 
throughout  the  State,  by  the  reception  which  was 
given  to  the  withdrawal  of  the  State  from  the  Union. 
The  excitement  was  intense,  and  vented  itself  in  the 
roaring  of  cannon  and  the  ringing  of  bells;  while 
the  Convention  hall,  whose  doors  were  flung  open 
upon  the  announcement  of  the  event,  was  thronged 
with  an  enthusiastic  and  cheering  multitude.  At 
night  the  city  was  brilliantly  illuminated,  and  the 
streets  were  thronged  with  a  concourse  of  men, 
women  and  children.  A  mass-meeting  was  held  in 
front  of  Montgomery  Hall,  and  Curry  and  John  B. 
Gordon  addressed  the  multitude.     It  was  the  first 


THE   DAWN   OF   WAR  149 

time  that  the  later  educator  had  met  the  later  soldier, 
whose  similar  patriotism  in  subsequent  years  was 
to  aid  in  reconciling  and  re-uniting  the  then  divided 
people  of  a  common  country. 

On  January  13th,  Curry  went  to  Selma,  Alabama, 
and  on  the  next  day  to  Talladega.  On  the  19th,  the 
Convention,  still  in  session,  elected  him  a  delegate — 
''deputy,"  he  calls  it — to  the  Convention  of  Seceding 
States,  which  was  to  meet  at  Montgomery,  on  Feb- 
ruary 4th  following,  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a 
provisional  government.  It  was  on  the  way  to  this 
Convention, — as  he  pauses  in  the  swift  narrative  of 
events,  made  in  his  later  years,  to  record, — that  he 
made  another  notable  acquaintance  in  the  person  of 
the  distinguished  lady,  who  has  left  the  mark  of  her 
literary  talent  upon  the  story  of  Southern  letters  in 
her  novels;  and  a  yet  more  grateful  memory  in  the 
hearts  of  many,  whose  lives  survive  the  stormy 
scenes  sought  to  be  herein  depicted,  by  her  attention 
to  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  Confederate  Camps 
of  1861-1865. 

On  February  3rd,  en  route  to  Montgomery,  to  attend 
the  Congress,  on  the  boat  above  Selma,  I  was  introduced 
to  Miss  Augusta  Evans,  an  ardent  Confederate,  the 
authoress  of  "Inez,"  "Beulah,"  "Macaria,"  etc.,  and 
then  began  a  delightful  friendship  with  a  pure  and  noble 
and  gifted  woman. 

Long  years  afterward  this  friend  of  the  river  trip 
to  Montgomery,  writing  to  him  of  his  special  mis- 
sion to  Spain,  says  : 

Mobile,  Jan.  1,  1902. 

My  dear  Mr.  Curry: 

"Forty-one  years  ago  I  listened  to  the  speech  you  de- 
livered in  the  "Confederacy  Congress"  at  Montgomery 


150      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

when  presenting  to  Howell  Cobb  an  inkstand  of  Talladega 
marble.  How  many,  who  heard  you  then,  survive  to-day 
to  congratulate  you  on  this  latest  laurel  wreath  earned 
by  your  successful  service?  Hoping  that  1902  comes 
freighted  with  blessings  for  you  and  your  wife,  and 
soliciting  your  generous  indulgence  for  this  ugly  scrawl, 
believe  me — as  of  yore. 

Your   sincere,    unreconstructed   rebel    friend, 

Augusta  Evans  Wilson." 

In  the  meantime,  while  Curry  was  in  the  South, 
the  dramatic  events  which  prefaced  the  crisis  were 
taking  place  in  Washington.  As  the  ordinances  of 
secession  were  passed  one  after  another  by  the 
Southern  States,  the  Senators  and  Representatives 
from  the  South  were  withdrawing  from  the  two 
Houses  of  the  National  Congress. 

"The  onlookers,"  says  a  historian  of  the  period,  writ- 
ing from  the  Northern  viewpoint  of  these  tragic  circum- 
stances, "thought  of  Webster  and  his  prayer,  that  his 
dying  eyes  as  they  sought  the  sun,  might  not  behold  it 
shining  upon  a  torn  and  rent  land,  and  they  cursed  the 
hour  in  which  they  themselves  were  witnessing  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Union." 

It  was  not  merely  men  that  were  leaving  the 
familiar  halls.  ''The  States  were  going  out!"  The 
Senators  in  person,  and  the  Representatives  for  the 
most  part  by  written  addresses,  took  their  leave. 
One  of  the  former,  who  became  in  time  the  central 
figure  of  this  tremendous  political  tragedy,  said  on 
the  21st  day  of  January,  1861,  in  a  farewell  address 
to  the  assembled  Senate,  the  final  word  announcing 
the  attitude  of  the  seceding  States: — 

"A  great  man  who  now  reposes  with  his  fathers,"  said 
Senator  Jefferson  Davis  of  Mississippi,   "and  who  has 


THE   DAWN   OF   WAR  151 

often  been  arraigned  for  a  want  of  fealty  to  the  Union, 
advocated  the  doctrine  of  Nullification  because  it  pre- 
served the  Union.  It  was  because  of  his  deep-seated 
attachment  to  the  Union, — his  determination  to  find 
some  remedy  for  existing  ills,  short  of  a  severance  of  the 
ties  which  bound  South  Carolina  to  the  other  States, — 
that  Mr.  Calhoun  advocated  the  doctrine  of  Nullifica- 
tion, which  he  proclaimed  to  be  peaceful,  to  be  within 
the  limits  of  State  power,  not  to  disturb  the  Union,  but 
only  to  be  a  means  of  bringing  the  agent  before  the  tri- 
bunal of  the  States  for  their  judgment. 

"Secession  belongs  to  a  different  class  of  remedies.  It 
is  to  be  justified  upon  the  basis  that  the  States  are  sov- 
ereign. There  was  a  time  when  none  denied  it.  I  hope 
the  time  may  come  again  when  a  better  comprehension 
of  the  theory  of  our  Government,  and  the  inalienable 
rights  of  the  people  of  the  States,  will  prevent  any  one 
from  denying  that  each  State  is  a  sovereign,  and  thus 
may  reclaim  the  grants  which  it  has  made  to  any  agent 
whomsoever." 

Second  in  the  Senate,  and  among  the  first  three 
or  four  of  the  delegations  from  the  South,  the  men 
from  Alabama  answered  the  call  of  their  sovereign 
States.  On  January  12th,  1861,  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar, 
and  the  other  Mississippi  representatives,  bade  adieu 
to  the  House  in  a  formal  note  of  fourteen  lines;  and 
on  the  day  of  Mr.  Davis'  farewell  address  to  the 
Senate,  Curry  and  his  colleagues  presented  to 
Speaker  Pennington  their  communication  of  with- 
drawal : — 

Washington  City, 

January  21,  1861. 

Sir: — Having  received  information  that  the  State  of 
Alabama,  through  a  convention  representing  her  sover- 
eignty, has  adopted  and  ratified  an  ordinance,  by  which 


152      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

she  withdraws  from  the  Union  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  resumes  the  powers  heretofore  delegated  to 
the  Federal  Government,  it  is  proper  that  we  should 
communicate  the  same  to  you,  and  through  you  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  over  which  you  preside,  and 
announce  our  withdrawal  from  the  further  deliberations 
of  that  body. 

The  causes  which,  in  the  judgment  of  our  State,  ren- 
dered such  action  necessary,  we  need  not  relate.  It  is 
sufficient  to  say,  that  duty  requires  obedience  to  her 
sovereign  will,  and  that  we  shall  return  to  our  homes, 
sustain  her  action,  and  share  the  fortunes  of  her  people. 
We  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  obe- 
dient servants, 

George  S.  Houston, 
Sydenham  Moore, 
David  Clopton, 
James  L.  Pugh, 
J.  L.  M.  Curry, 
James  A.  Stallworth. 
Hon.  William  Pennington, 

Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Of  the  men  who  signed  this  paper,  informed  with 
a  spirit  of  duty,  dignified  in  its  expression,  and  carry- 
ing between  the  lines  an  unconcealed  pathos,  it  may 
be  here  written  that  their  subsequent  careers  vin- 
dicated their  pure  patriotism  and  lofty  purpose. 
Houston  became  a  post-bellum  Governor  of  his  State. 
Sydenham  Moore,  an  intimate  friend  of  Curry's,  fell 
at  Seven  Pines  with  a  mortal  wound,  and  died  from 
its  effects  a  short  time  afterwards  in  Richmond. 
Clopton  and  Stallworth  were  honored  by  the  people 
of  their  State ;  and  James  L.  Pugh  lived  to  represent 
Alabama  in  the  Senate  of  a  restored  and  indissoluble 
Union,  I'    .. 


CHAPTER  X 


A   NEW  NATION 


Of  the  popular  vote  in  the  Presidential  election  of 
November,  1860,  the  Republican  ticket  had  received 
1,866,352;  the  Constitutional  Union  ticket  589,581; 
and  the  two  democratic  tickets  together,  2,220,920, 
of  which  1,375,157  votes  had  been  cast  for  the  ticket 
headed  by  Douglas,  and  845,763  for  that  headed  by 
Breckinridge.  A  loose-construction  party,  to  use 
the  political  phraseology  of  the  time,  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  Union,  had  gained  control 
of  the  government,  though  by  a  popular  minority; 
and  when  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the  oath  of  office  as 
President  of  the  United  States  on  March  4th,  1861, 
seven  of  the  Southern  States  had  already  left  the 
Union,  and  others  were  preparing  to  follow.  Vir- 
ginia had  called  a  convention,  which  met  in  Rich- 
mond on  the  13th  day  of  February,  1861,  a  majority 
of  whose  members  were  Union  men,  and  opposed  to 
the  secession  of  the  Commonwealth.  On  April  14th, 
while  the  Convention  was  in  session.  Fort  Sumter, 
after  a  bombardment  of  thirty  hours  by  the  military 
forces  of  the  seceded  States,  surrendered;  and  the 
President  of  the  United  States  on  April  15th  issued 
a  call  for  75,000  volunteers  to  coerce  the  States  which 
had  withdrawn  from  the  Union.  On  April  17th,  in 
consequence   of   the    call   for   volunteers,    Virginia 

153 


154      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

enacted  an  ordinance  of  secession,  and  communi- 
cated its  decision  to  the  provisional  government  of 
the  Confederate  States  at  Montgomery,  Alabama. 

In  the  meantime,  Curry,  as  a  deputy  of  his  State, 
had  been  present  when  the  convention  of  the  Seced- 
ing States  met  at  Montgomery,  February  4,  1861. 
The  body  assembled  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  the 
Capitol.  Howell  Cobb  of  Georgia  was  elected  pres- 
ident of  the  body.  Others  among  the  ablest  and 
most  distinguished  members  who  participated  in  its 
deliberations  were  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Thomas 
Reade  Rootes  Cobb,  Benjamin  Hill,  Robert  Toombs, 
T.  J.  Withers,  Robert  W.  Barnwell,  Charles  G. 
Meminger,  R.  H.  Smith,  Robert  W.  Walker,  Lewis 
T.  Wigfall,  and  John  Hemphill. 

Curry's  colleagues,  in  addition  to  Messrs.  Walker 
and  Smith,  already  mentioned,  were  Colin  J.  Mc- 
Crae,  John  Gill  Shorter,  William  P.  Chilton,  Stephen 
F.  Hale,  David  P.  Lewis,  and  Thomas  Fearn. 

The  immediate  and  most  urgent  business  of  the 
Convention  was  to  prepare  and  adopt  a  provisional 
constitution,  and  to  organize  the  government  of  the 
new  nation.  A  constitution  was  framed  and  adopted, 
which  in  its  provisions  carefully  and  explicitly 
guarded  by  express  language  all  those  issues  which 
had  been  the  subjects  of  controversy  and  conten- 
tion between  the  loose  constructionists  and  the 
strict  constructionists  of  the  old  Union. 

Jefferson  Davis  of  Mississippi  and  Alexander  H. 
Stephens  of  Georgia  were  respectively  elected  Pres- 
ident and  Vice-president  of  the  Confederate  States 
of  America;  and  in  the  presence  of  a  great  multitude 
the  President  took  the  oath  of  office,  standing  on  the 
steps  of  the  portico  of  the  historic  building,  looking 


A   NEW   NATION  155 

from  its  eminence  upon  the  city.  The  spot  where 
Davis  stood  is  still  marked  by  a  star,  let  into  the 
pavement  of  the  step,  to  point  to  the  visitor  of  later 
generations  the  birthplace  of  one  of  the  most  tragic 
political  Commonwealths  in  history. 

"Mr.  Davis  reached  Montgomery  on  the  17th  of  Feb- 
ruary," writes  Curry  in  his  memoranda,  "and  was 
inaugurated  on  the  following  day.  He  stood  on  the  steps 
of  the  capitol  looking  west,  as  he  read  his  Inaugural,  and 
when  the  oath  of  office  was  administered,  with  great 
solemnity  and  reverence  he  bowed  and  kissed  a  large 
open  Bible,  which  lay  before  him.  The  induction  of  the 
President  of  the  Confederate  States  was  most  fitting. 
Then  sounded  the  cannon.  The  first  gun  was  fired  by 
a  grand-daughter  of  President  Tyler.  She  was  a  pretty 
little  girl  about  twelve  years  old." 

Doubtless  the  heart  of  the  Southern  President  in 
this  supreme  moment  was  as  sad  and  anxious  as  was 
that  of  the  newly  elected  head  of  a  rent  and  disor- 
ganized Union  beyond  the  Potomac;  but  upon  it 
lay  no  burden  of  doubt  as  to  the  justice  and  right- 
eousness of  the  cause. 

"We  have  changed,"  said  Mr.  Davis,  toward  the  close 
of  his  inaugural  address,  "the  constituent  parts,  but  not 
the  system  of  our  government.  The  Constitution  formed 
by  our  fathers  is  that  of  these  Confederate  States,  in  their 
exposition  of  it;  and,  in  the  judicial  construction  it  has 
received,  we  have  a  light  which  reveals  its  true  meaning." 

He  concluded  his  address  in  a  lofty  strain: — 

"It  is  joyous,"  he  said,  "in  the  midst  of  perilous  times, 
to  look  around  upon  a  people  united  in  heart;  where  one 
purpose  of  high  resolve  animates  and  actuates  the  whole, 
— where  the  sacrifices  to  be  made  are  not  weighed  in  the 


156     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

balance  against  honor,  and  right  and  hberty  and  equality. 
Obstacles  may  retard, — they  cannot  long  prevent, — the 
progress  of  a  movement  sanctioned  by  its  justice,  and 
sustained  by  a  virtuous  people.  Reverently  let  us  invoke 
the  God  of  our  fathers  to  guide  and  protect  us  in  our 
efforts  to  perpetuate  the  principles,  which  by  this  bless- 
ing they  were  able  to  vindicate,  establish,  and  transmit 
to  their  posterity,  and  with  a  continuance  of  this  favor 
ever  gratefully  acknowledged  we  may  hopefully  look 
forward  to  success,  to  peace,  and  to  prosperity." 

Until  Fort  Sumter  fell,  there  were  many  in  the 
North,  even  of  those  who  had  been  original  aboli- 
tionists, who,  while  bitterly  lamenting  the  occasion, 
were  willing  to  see  the  Union  dissolved.  Horace 
Greeley's  famous  ''Let  our  erring  sisters  go  in  peace," 
expressed  the  sentiments  of  a  large  number  of  the 
commercial  and  academic  classes. 

"By  March,"  writes  Curry,  "a  permanent  Constitu- 
tion was  adopted,  and  submitted  to  the  separate  Con- 
federate States  for  their  ratification.  The  Congress 
adhered  with  almost  literal  fidelity  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  as  not  the  provisions  of  that  in- 
strument, but  the  violations,  were  the  gravamen  of  our 
complaints.  The  New  York  Herald,  in  April,  published 
the  full  text  of  our  Constitution,  and  advised  the  North 
to  adopt  it  as  a  settlement  of  the  difficulties. 

"Very  little  difference  of  opinion  was  developed  in  the 
Congress.  The  most  patriotic  harmony  prevailed,  and 
some  of  the  most  sagacious  members  thought  there  would 
be  no  war.  All  deprecated  such  an  event,  and  hoped,  as 
no  interference  with  the  United  States  was  proposed, 
that  a  peaceful  adjustment  might  be  secured.  The 
troubles,  growing  out  of  the  garrisoning  of  forts  in 
Charleston  harbor,  brought  on  a  collision,  which  occa- 
sioned the  four  years'  bloody  tragedy."  , 


A   NEW   NATION  157 

After  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Curry  received 
a  letter  from  Major  James  Longstreet,  then  at 
Albuquerque,  New  Mexico,  authorizing  him  to  ten- 
der Longstreet's  services  to  Alabama  in  the  event 
of  her  secession;  and  later  his  services  were  offered 
to  the  Confederacy  through  Curry,  who  carried  the 
letter  to  Mr.  Davis.  They  were  accepted  by  the 
President,  who  at  once  appointed  Longstreet  a 
Colonel,  from  which  office  he  rose  to  be  one  of  the 
great  Major  Generals  of  the  Confederacy.  Raphael 
Semmes,  of  later  ''Alabama"  fame,  wrote  to  Curry 
about  the  situation;  and  after  resigning  his  commis- 
sion in  the  United  States  Navy,  and  his  position  on 
the  Light  House  Board,  telegraphed  that  he  was  in  a 
condition  to  serve  the  South. 

Army  and  navy  officers  of  the  United  States  mili- 
tary and  naval  organizations,  all  about  the  world, 
who  were  Southerners  by^birth  or  residence,  and  not 
a  few  who  were  neither,  but  believed  that  the  cause 
of  the  South  was  a  just  cause,  hastened  to  tender 
their  swords  and  services  to  the  Confederacy. 

It  is  worthy  of  record  here,  even  at  the  risk 
of  wearisome  iteration,  that  these  men  did  not  en- 
gage in  this  service  for  the  sake  of  perpetuating 
slavery;  but  that  they  were  animated  by  the  same 
patriotic  sentiment  of  loyalty  to  constitutional  free- 
dom and  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  individual  States 
that  impelled  the  political  leaders  of  the  mighty 
movement.  Robert  E.  Lee  owned  no  slaves  at  the 
time  of  the  War.  Fitzhugh  Lee  never  owned  a  slave. 
J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  the  great  cavalry  leader  of  the  Con- 
federacy, owned  no  slave  at  the  time  of  the  war. 
Joseph  E.  Johnston  never  owned  a  slave.  And  what 
is  true  of  these  men  is  true  of  many  others,  who  hav- 


158      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

ing  held  commissions  in  the  army  of  the  United 
States,  had  no  hesitation  as  to  the  direction  in 
which  lay  their  paramount  allegiance. 

In  the  month  of  May,  1861,  the  Confederate  Con- 
gress adjourned,  after  having  first  resolved  to  re- 
assemble in  its  next  session  at  Richmond,  Virginia. 
Curry  states  that  this  change  was  made  as  an  imag- 
ined military  necessity;  but  that  in  his  opinion  the 
measure  was  of  very  doubtful  wisdom.  Whatever 
its  wisdom  or  unwisdom,  it  had  the  practical  effect 
of  making  Virginia  the  battleground  of  the  sangui- 
nary struggle  that  followed,  and  of  visiting  upon  the 
ancient  Commonwealth  a  physical  devastation  that 
was  suffered  in  the  same  measure  by  no  other  one 
of  the  Confederate  States. 

On  July  20,  1861,  the  Confederate  Congress  met 
in  Richmond;  and  on  the  same  day  Curry  left 
Talladega  for  the  new  capital  of  the  Confederacy, 
and  arrived  in  Richmond  the  following  morning. 
Upon  his  arrival,  he  learned  of  the  near  approach  of 
collision  between  the  troops  of  the  two  governments. 

"Hearing  that  a  battle  was  imminent  at  Manassas," 
he  writes,  "I  took  the  train  ...  to  hasten  to  the 
scene  of  the  conflict.  The  cars  were  so  crowded  that  the 
whole  day  hardly  sufficed  to  enable  us  to  reach  Manassas. 
The  battle  had  been  fought;  the  victory  won;  and  the 
Federal  soldiers,  in  complete  rout,  had  fled  to  Washing- 
ton. I  rode  over  the  battlefield  and  along  the  line  of 
retreat,  and  to  me  the  carnage  seemed  dreadful.  It  was 
my  first  sight  of  dead  men  killed  in  battle.  One  thing 
impressed  me  powerfully:  the  utter  disorganization  and 
want  of  discipline  in  our  army.  Victory  had  demoralized 
our  troops  as  much  as  defeat  had  the  enemy.  To  my 
inexperienced  eye  it  seemed  as  if  a  well-appointed  brigade 


A   NEW   NATION  159 

could  have  captured  our  whole  army.  Everything  was  in 
confusion,  and  men  and  officers  seemed  to  be  straggling 
at  will." 

On  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  the  battlefield  of 
Manassas,  he  made  his  first  acquaintance  with 
Generals  Joseph  E.  Johnston  and  P.  G.  T.  Beaure- 
gard. No  other  opportunity  or  occasion  occurred  to 
him  to  come  in  contact  with  the  military  organiza- 
tions of  the  Confederacy  until  the  following  Septem- 
ber, when  upon  the  adjournment  of  Congress  he 
again  visited  the  army,  and  went  as  far  as  Mason's 
and  Munson's  Hills,  from  which  he  could  see  the  flag 
of  the  Union  floating  over  the  Capitol  at  Washington. 
He  mingled  with  the  men  of  several  Alabama  regi- 
ments, who  paid  him  the  compliment  of  more  than 
one  serenade;  and  he  renewed  his  acquaintance  with 
General  Longstreet,  with  whom  he  dined  by  invita- 
tion at  Fairfax  Court  House  in  a  distinguished  group 
of  officers,  including  General  Johnston. 

On  the  day  following  his  visit  to  Manassas,  Curry 
returned  to  Richmond.  The  provisional  Congress 
of  the  Confederacy  had  assembled  in  the  capitol  of 
the  Commonwealth,  a  beautiful  structure  of  classi- 
cal proportions,  designed  by  Mr.  Jefferson  upon  the 
model  of  the  Maison  Carree  at  Nismes,  in  France, 
and  which  had  witnessed  already  the  presence  of 
many  great  men  of  Virginia  and  the  nation,  and  had 
been  the  scene  of  many  momentous  and  historical 
events.  Among  the  new  members  of  Congress  was 
a  venerable  ex-President  of  the  United  States,  John 
Tyler,  during  whose  administration  Texas  had  been 
admitted  to  the  Union,  and  whose  singular  devotion 
to  the  Union  over  which  he  had  once  presided  was 
only  equalled  by  his  patriotic  loyalty,  as  a  State- 


160     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

rights,  strict-constructionist,  to  the  sovereign  Com- 
monwealth of  Virginia. 

Among  the  matters  of  business  claiming  the  at- 
tention of  the  Congress  was  the  consideration  of  bills 
that  were  introduced  providing  for  the  admission 
into  the  Confederacy  of  the  States  of  Missouri  and 
Kentucky.  The  admission  of  these  States  was 
favored  in  speeches  that  were  made  by  Tyler, 
Toombs,  Wigfall,  and  other  members  of  prominence, 
and  the  measures  were  enacted  into  law.  But 
Curry,  with  a  keen  and  philosophic  discrimination 
which  postponed  utility  to  principle,  opposed  their 
passage  with  a  logic  which  was  as  inexorable  as  it 
might  have  proved  efficient  under  other  and  less 
exigent  conditions.  In  his  opposition,  he  vindicated 
the  accuracy  and  exactness  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  political 
philosophy;  and  when  some  true  history  of  the  great 
South  Carolina  statesman's  life  and  career  shall 
come  to  be  written,  it  may  well  contain  the  record 
that  of  all  his  disciples  there  was  none  who  followed 
more  exactly  and  comprehendingly  in  the  path  of 
his  political  footsteps  than  did  J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

"I  opposed  them  ineffectually,"  he  writes,  "and 
almost  alone,"  he  adds  in  another  place,  "on  the  ground 
that  their  admission  would  be  in  utter  contravention  of 
all  the  principles  underlying  our  secession  and  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Confederacy; — that  a  majority  of  the  people 
of  Kentucky  and  Missouri  were  not  in  sympathy  with 
us,  and  that  the  representatives  would  have  no  constit- 
uents. My  predictions  were  too  faithfully  verified.  The 
States  were  soon  in  the  complete  control  of  the  Federal 
army:  and  those  who  sat  as  representatives  of  those 
States  owed  their  pretence  of  an  election  to  the  votes 
cast  by  soldiers  in  our  army  from  those  States.     With 


A   NEW   NATION  161 

some    honorable    exceptions,    the    representatives    were 
worse  than  useless." 

It  was  during  his  sojourn  in  Richmond  as  a  member 
of  the  Confederate  Congress  that  he  first  met  the 
young  woman,  who  two  years  after  the  war  became 
his  second  wife,  and  whose  association  with  him,  in 
that  affectionate  and  intimate  relation,  exercised  a 
noble  influence  upon  his  later  more  distinguished 
career. 

"I  soon  went  to  board,"  he  writes,  "with  A.  H.  Sands, 
esquire,  between  First  and  Foushee,  on  Grace  Street,  and 
remained  with  him  during  my  service  in  Congress.  From 
him  and  his  family  I  received  the  kindest  and  most  cor- 
dial attentions,  for  which  I  shall  ever  be  truly  grateful. 
Before  going  to  Mr.  Sands',  I  had  boarded  fourteen  days 
at  the  Spotswood  Hotel.  During  August,  in  company 
with  Judge  Chilton,  my  colleague,  I  called  at  Mr.  James 
Thomas,  Jr.'s,  corner  of  Second  and  Grace.  The  family 
were  so  gentle,  so  hospitable,  so  cordial,  that  my  heart 
was  won;  and  during  my  service  in  Congress  a  week 
seldom  passed  that  I  did  not  take  tea  with  the  family. 
Separated  from  my  own  family,  I  as  eagerly  longed  for 
the  repetition  of  my  visits  to  this  welcome  home,  as 
school-girl  ever  looked  forward  to  vacation  and  reunion 
with  parents." 

During  the  period  of  his  attendance  on  Congress, 
Curry  made  a  number  of  speeches  at  different 
churches  in  behalf  of  colportage  among  the  soldiers 
of  the  army.  He  also  delivered  several  lectures, 
one  of  which  was  on  "The  Wants  of  the  Confed- 
eracy." This  was  delivered  on  the  13th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1862;  and  even  then  was  a  spacious  subject, 
embracing  an  almost  illimitable  field.  Among  those 
who   pleased  his  natural   sense   of  self-esteem  by 


162      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

asking  for  its  publication,  he  mentions  the  Hon. 
WilUam  C.  Rives,  the  Reverend  Moses  D.  Hoge, 
General  Winder,  Dr.  Brown,  and  the  Hon.  John 
Randolph  Tucker.  But  with  a  wise  caution,  for  a 
public  speaker  of  frequent  occasion,  he  declined  the 
flattering  request. 

On  the  22nd  day  of  February,  1862  (Washing- 
ton's Birthday),  the  provisional  government  of  the 
Confederate  States,  established  in  the  preceding 
year  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  had  ceased  to  exist; 
and  on  that  day  Jefferson  Davis  of  Mississippi  and 
Alexander  H.  Stephens  of  Georgia,  having  been 
unanimously  chosen  President  and  Vice-president, 
respectively,  by  the  votes  of  the  convention  of  every 
Southern  State,  were  duly  inaugurated  for  a  consti- 
tutional term  of  six  years.  The  oath  of  office  was 
administered  to  the  President  by  the  Hon.  J.  D. 
Halyburton,  and  to  Alexander  H.  Stephens  by  the 
President  of  the  Confederate  States.  On  the  next 
day  President  Davis  sent  to  the  Senate  for  confir- 
mation a  list  of  Cabinet  appointments,  as  follows: 
Secretary  of  State,  Judah  P.  Benjamin  of  Louisiana; 
Secretary  of  War,  George  Wythe  Randolph  of  Vir- 
ginia; Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Stephen  R.  Mallory 
of  Florida;  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  C.  G.  Mem- 
minger  of  South  Carolina;  Postmaster  General,  Mr. 
Henry  of  Kentucky;  Attorney  General,  Herschel  V. 
Johnson  of  Georgia. 

The  Congress  adjourned  on  April  18th,  1862. 
Curry  went  home,  for  a  short  stay,  returning  to 
Richmond  and  his  duties  on  the  17th  of  August. 

There  was  little  which  was  eventful  in  Curry's 
political  service  or  in  the  political  annals  of  this 
period.    The  drama  of  war  held  the  stage  and  pub- 


A   NEW   NATION  163 

lie  interest  centred  in  the  operations  of  the  forces 
in  the  field.  The  Seven  Days'  Battles  about  Rich- 
mond took  place  during  the  summer  of  1862;  and 
the  stout  hearted  city  held  her  own  against  mighty 
odds. 

On  the  6th  of  October  Curry  left  Richmond  for 
Talladega,  and  reached  home  on  the  12th.  During 
his  attendance  upon  the  sessions  of  Congress  in 
Richmond,  Mrs.  Curry  had  remained  in  Alabama, 
taking  an  active  part  in  various  patriotic  charities. 
She  was  at  the  head  of  a  sewing  circle,  which  was 
accustomed  to  meet  at  the  old  Curry  homestead  at 
Kelly's  Springs,  for  the  purpose  of  making  clothes 
for  the  soldiers.  Although  Mrs.  Cm-ry  was  a  frail 
and  delicate  woman,  she  was  possessed  of  an  in- 
domitable energy  and  perseverance,  and  of  great 
prudence  and  tact  in  the  management  of  others. 
By  her  industry  and  liberality  she  had  already  ac- 
complished a  large  amount  of  work  of  this  kind, 
for  which  she  had  been  accorded  great  praise 
throughout  the  country.  In  many  instances  the 
private  soldier  at  the  front  left  no  bread-winner  at 
home  to  care  for  the  family;  and  the  majority  of 
the  men  in  the  Confederate  armies  were  not  slave- 
owners. So  it  happened  that  it  was  not  uncommon 
for  the  soldiers'  families  to  find  themselves  in  desti- 
tution and  want,  even  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  War, 
although  contributions  for  their  relief  were  frequent 
and  liberal.  Those  who  had  gave  willingly,  how- 
ever, to  those  who  had  not;  and  at  one  time  Curry 
himself  turned  over  to  the  Probate  Court  of  Talla- 
dega County,  without  thought  of  compensation,  for 
the  aid  of  soldiers'  families,  one  thousand  bushels 
of  corn.    It  was  a  large  and  generous  gift;   and  yet 


164     J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

so  general  were  donations  of  this  character  from 
those  who  were  able  to  make  them,  that  this  large 
contribution  attracted  no  special  attention;  and, 
Curry  adds  in  recording  it,  it  may  be  '4ess  grati- 
tude." 

Returning  to  Richmond,  he  writes  of  the  Congress 
then  in  session: — 

The  legislation  amounted  to  very  little.  Mr.  Davis 
gave  to  Congress  very  little  information  beyond  what 
was  published  in  the  newspapers.  We  were  apparently 
expected  to  put  into  statutes  what  he  deemed  best  for 
the  interests  of  the  Confederacy.  Possibly,  probably, 
it  was  best  not  to  communicate  military  secrets  to  Con- 
gress, for  very  little  occurred  in  either  House  that  did 
not  promptly  find  its  way  into  the  newspapers. 

We  had  some  excellent  men  in  the  House.  Mr.  Wil- 
liam C.  Rives  was  a  ripe  scholar,  an  experienced  states- 
man, a  high-toned  gentleman.  Garnett  of  Virginia  was 
a  man  of  abundant  possibilities.  He  died,  and  I  made 
one  of  the  addresses  on  the  occasion.  Staples  and  Pres- 
ton were  eloquent  men.  Henry  S.  Foote  of  Tennessee 
was  sui  generis, — whether  partially  demented,  or  merely 
disaffected  to  the  South,  it  was  difficult  to  decide. 

The  impossibility  of  appreciating  our  currency  was 
every  day  more  clearly  demonstrated,  and  the  rapid 
depreciation  made  increased  issue  necessary;  and  the 
two  counter-currents  were  running  violently.  A  propo- 
sition to  make  our  notes  a  legal  tender  had  strong  and 
zealous  advocates.  I  opposed  this  in  an  elaborate  speech, 
which  was  much  praised,  and  which  I  think  had  the  effect 
of  killing  the  measure.  I  made  two  speeches  on  different 
aspects  of  the  currency  question. 

Frequently  I  presided  in  the  House,  and  when  the 
Speaker,  Mr.  Bocock,  was  absent,  I  was  elected  Speaker 
pro  tern.  If  I  had  been  a  member  of  the  next  Congress,  I 
should  probably  have  been  chosen  to  preside,  as  very 


A   NEW   NATION  165 

many  of  the  members  had  very  decidedly  expressed  their 
preference  in  that  direction. 

Contemporary  and  later  testimony  acclaims 
Curry's  merits  and  abilities  as  a  presiding  officer. 
He  was  a  student  of  parliamentary  law,  and  pos- 
sessed the  qualities  of  alert  perception,  keen  intelli- 
gence, disinterested  honesty,  and  swift  and  firm 
decision.  All  these  had  been  sharpened  and  inten- 
sified by  his  large  experience  in  both  religious  and 
political  bodies  and  assemblages;  and  if  the  proba- 
bility which  he  suggests  had  ever  become  a  reality, 
there  can  be  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  would  have 
so  discharged  the  duties  of  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  as  to  add  another  laurel  to  those 
that  he  had  already  won,  or  to  those  which  he  later 
wore. 

Curry's  memorabilia  are  strangely  silent  on  de- 
tails, impressions  and  personal  touches  concerning 
the  Confederate  Congress  which  we  would  be  very 
grateful  for  in  building  up  a  picture  of  that  unique 
governmental  body.  The  Constitution  of  the  Con- 
federacy seemed  to  him  an  instrument  of  great  wis- 
dom, and  an  everlasting  refutation  of  the  charges 
which  have  been  brought  against  the  framers,  as 
conspirators  erecting  a  great  slavery  oligarchy.  Its 
tenure  of  oflace  provisions,  its  initiation,  in  a  modi- 
fied form,  of  the  British  custom  of  allowing  the 
President  representation  on  the  floor  of  the  two 
houses  through  his  constitutional  advisers,  espe- 
cially appealed  to  him.  In  speaking  of  the  Con- 
federate instrument  he  later  declared: — 

Every  possible  infringement  upon  popular  liberty,  or 
upon  State  rights,  every  oppressive  or  sectional  use  of 


166      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

the  taxing  power,  was  carefully  guarded  against,  and 
civil  service  reform  was  made  easy  and  practicable. 
Stubborn  and  corrupting  controversies  about  tariffs,  post- 
office,  improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors,  subsidies, 
extra  pay,  were  avoided.  The  taxing  power  was  placed 
under  salutary  restrictions.  Responsibility  was  more 
clearly  fixed.  Money  in  the  treasury  was  protected 
against  purchasable  majorities  and  wicked  combinations. 
Adequate  powers  for  a  frugal  and  just  administration 
were  granted  to  the  General  Government.  The  States 
maintained  their  autonomy,  and  were  not  reduced  to 
petty  corporations,  or  counties,  or  dependencies. 

The  study  of  the  Confederate  Constitution  would  be 
useful  at  present,  as  there  never  was  a  time  when  the 
need  of  restrictions  and  guarantees  against  irresponsible 
power  was  more  urgent.  The  public  mind  has  been 
schooled  against  any  assertion  of  State  rights  or  of  con- 
stitutional limitations,  and  taught  to  look  with  aversion 
and  ridicule  upon  any  serious  attempt  to  set  up  the 
ancient  landmarks.  The  abeyance  of  State  authority, 
reliance  in  actions  and  opinions  upon  Federal  protection 
and  aid,  the  vast  accumulation  of  power  and  influence  at 
Washington,  the  supposed  necessary  supremacy  of  the 
Central  Government,  have  caused  a  wide  departure  from 
the  theory  and  principles  of  the  fathers. 

He  was  constant  in  praise  of  the  learning,  the 
ability  and  the  legislative  wisdom  of  the  individuals 
composing  the  Congress  operating  under  this  admi- 
rable constitution.  And  yet  his  records  suggest  a 
dullness  in  its  proceedings,  a  certain  futility  in  its 
debates,  a  certain  lack  of  a  proper  forum  for  pure 
civic  ability.  The  inference  is  very  clear  that 
though  the  Confederate  Congress  was  nobly  organ- 
ized to  carry  on  a  settled  and  placid  government, 
the  knowledge  that  success  in  war  could  alone  guar- 


A   NEW   NATION  167 

antee  its  existence  tended  inevitably  to  give  it 
second  place  in  the  public  consideration,  and  to 
rob  its  proceedings  of  that  lofty  dignity  that  belongs 
of  right  to  parliaments  of  established  nations.  The 
soul  and  spirit  of  a  brave,  struggling  people  hovered 
over  the  field  of  battle,  and  not  over  the  chamber  of 
debate  and  mere  intellectual  combat. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    EBBING   OF   THE   TIDE 

On  May  4,  1863,  Curry  reached  home  on  his  re- 
turn from  Richmond,  and  announced  himself  a 
candidate  for  re-election  to  the  Confederate  Con- 
gress. His  district  comprised  the  four  counties  of 
Calhoun,  Randolph,  Talladega  and  Shelby.  For  a 
while  after  his  announcement  he  had  no  opposition. 
Then  a  candidate  appeared  in  the  person  of  Marcus 
Cruikshanks,  whom  Curry  speaks  of  as  "a  very 
worthy  man."  Curry  addressed  to  him  a  communi- 
cation, suggesting  that  they  canvass  the  district 
together, — a  proposition  which  Mr.  Cruikshanks 
declined.  The  latter's  supporters  adopted  the  dan- 
gerous and  effective  policy  of  a  modern  ''still  hunt." 
They  engaged  in  no  open  arguments,  and  con- 
ducted their  political  program  with  a  secrecy  which 
proved  to  be  invincible.  "Silence  is  the  true  elo- 
quence of  power,"  said  a  great  French  statesman, 
"because  it  admits  of  no  reply."  Curry  was  unable 
to  answer  the  insidious  attacks  of  his  political 
enemies,  or  to  withstand  the  logic  of  events  which 
were  now  proving  potent  arguments  against  the 
doctrines  of  secession  and  of  State  rights.  At  the 
election  in  August,  1863,  Curry  was  defeated,  his 
opponent  carrying  three  out  of  the  four  counties  of 
the  district,  and  leaving  him  only  a  small  majority 
in  the  county  of  Calhoun. 

The  arguments  of  word  and  of  event,  which  had 
proved  so  overwhelming  in  their  results,  were  not 

168 


THE   EBBING   OF    THE    TIDE        169 

very  far  to  seek  when  the  smoke  of  the  political 
battle  cleared  away. 

The  district,  as  constituted,  had  been  originally 
opposed  to  secession.  At  the  time  of  the  election 
Vicksbm-g  had  fallen  before  the  victorious  forces  of 
Grant;  and  the  reverses  to  the  Confederate  arms 
in  Pennsylvania  and  in  Tennessee  had  alike  served 
to  dispirit  a  people  who  had  not  been  sanguine  of 
success  from  the  beginning.  A  secret  peace  organi- 
zation had  sprung  up  in  the  district.  Deserters 
from  the  army  were  multiplying  in  numbers,  and 
sowing  the  seeds  of  discontent  among  those  with 
whom  they  came  in  contact.  The  volunteers  had 
long  since  gone  to  the  front,  many  of  them  never  to 
return;  and  a  conscription,  which  had  already 
begun,  of  dire  necessity,  to  take  the  old  men  and 
the  young  alike,  ''robbing  both  the  cradle  and  the 
grave,"  was  now  arousing  a  spirit  of  ill-concealed 
hostility.  "General  Hard  Times"  had  assumed 
command  in  the  Confederacy.  The  currency  be- 
came every  day  of  less  value.  A  Confederate  paper 
dollar,  that  had  been  worth  a  dollar  and  ten  cents 
in  the  August  of  two  years  before,  had  now  depre- 
ciated to  such  an  extent  that  it  took  from  twelve 
to  thirteen  such  dollars  in  August,  1863,  to  equal 
in  value  a  dollar  of  gold.  Taxes  were  high,  and  the 
tax-gatherer  of  the  government  was  establishing 
granaries,  in  which  were  stored  the  government's 
exacted  fractions  and  tithes  of  the  meagre  crops 
raised  by  the  old  men,  and  women  and  children, 
and  the  negro  slaves.  A  barrel  of  flour  in  March, 
1863,  cost  in  the  Confederacy  twenty-five  Confed- 
erate dollars.  In  February  of  that  year,  the  money 
value  of  a  day's  rations  for  one  hundred  soldiers, 


170     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

which  in  the  first  year  of  the  war  had  been  nine 
dollars,  was  at  market  prices  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three.  Salt,  which  had  advanced  in  the 
first  year  of  the  struggle  from  ten  to  eighteen  dol- 
lars a  sack,  was  still  going  up  in  price  with  a  steadi- 
ness which  the  salt  "licks"  and  springs  of  Tennes- 
see, the  Indian  Territory  and  Southwest  Virginia, 
seemed  powerless  to  counteract.  A  cordon  of  block- 
ading Federal  vessels  shut  out  the  markets  of  the 
world  from  the  great  staple,  which  so  short  a  time 
before  had  been  endowed  with  a  royal  appellation, 
and  "King  Cotton"  was  dethroned.  The  blockade- 
runners,  from  Nassau  in  the  Bahamas  to  Wilming- 
ton in  North  Carolina,  brought  in,  under  the  stress 
of  darkness  and  ever  imminent  danger,  scanty  sup- 
plies of  medicines  and  surgical  necessaries;  but 
there  was  little  help  from  the  outside  world  for  the 
environed  South. 

Out  of  this  pressure  of  poverty  and  distress  were 
generated  the  demagogue  and  the  malcontent,  who 
availed  themselves,  with  sinister  purpose  and  suc- 
cessful accomplishment,  of  the  depressing  circum- 
stances that  existed  to  inflame  the  prejudices  of  the 
weak-hearted  and  the  poverty-stricken  against  se- 
cession and  secessionists. 

Curry's  whole  political  career,  his  open  and  con- 
sistent advocacy  of  political  doctrines,  which  were 
now  denounced  as  the  causes  and  origin  of  the 
war,  afforded  a  shining  target  for  attack.  He  had 
been  an  arch-secessionist;  and  he  was  still  in  favor 
of  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  struggle.  It  was 
not  alone  upon  the  ignorant  and  the  credulously 
disaffected  that  delusive  promises  of  an  early  peace 
had  their  telling  and  depressing  effect. 


THE   EBBING   OF   THE    TIDE       171 

His  defeat  for  re-election  brought  him  many  ex- 
pressions of  sorrow  and  regret  from  all  parts  of  the 
Confederacy;  and  the  news  was  received  with  down- 
cast hearts,  and  with  universal  sympathy  throughout 
the  South,  among  those  whom  he  denominates  ''the 
true  and  faithful."  It  was  no  time  for  idleness  or  re- 
pining, and  Curry  immediately  turned  from  statesman- 
ship, in  which  he  delighted,  to  war,  which  he  abhorred. 

On  the  22nd  of  September,  1863,  he  went  out  with 
a  company  of  ''Home  Guards,"  to  aid  in  an  impend- 
ing battle;  but  the  great  fight  at  Chickamauga  had 
occurred  before  they  reached  the  army. 

"I  went  over  the  battle-field,"  he  writes,  "before  the 
Federal  dead  were  buried,  and  then  visited  the  army 
occupying  Missionary  Ridge,  Lookout  Mountain,  and  the 
Valley  between.  From  Lookout  Mountain  one  of  the 
grandest  views  in  the  world  is  presented.  The  two 
armies, — the  Federals  were  in  Chattanooga, — lay  at  the 
beholder's  feet." 

On  October  10,  1863,  he  reached  home  from  the 
seat  of  war.  In  the  early  part  of  November  he 
visited  Perry  county,  and  shortly  thereafter  spent 
a  few  days  at  Montgomery,  where  the  legislature  of 
the  State  was  in  session.  Although  he  makes  no 
mention  of  it  in  his  memorahilia,  his  friends  and  ad- 
mirers appear  at  this  time  to  have  planned  his  elec- 
tion to  the  Confederate  States  Senate,  as  is  indicated 
by  a  letter  found  among  his  papers. 

Talladega,  Ala., 

Nov.  13,  1863. 
Hon.  Thomas  B.  Cooper, 

My  dear  Sir: — In  the  first  place  excuse  (you  would 

have  done  that  without  the  asking,  if  paper  is  as  scarce 

in  your  office  as  in  mine,)  this  blank-book  paper.    In  the 


172      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

second  place,  you  will  excuse  an  old  friend,  for  venturing 
to  intercede  with  you  for  help,  if  he  needs  it,  for  one 
whom  he  ardently  desires  to  be  promoted  by  the  Legis- 
lature. I  mean  the  Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  who  is  a  can- 
didate for  the  Confederate  States  Senate.  I  know  not 
your  predilections  on  that  subject;  nor  do  I  know  who 
are  the  most  prominent  competitors  of  Mr.  Curry.  I 
know  this  much,  however,  that  I  have  nothing  to  say 
in  disparagement  of  any  of  them.  But  I  feel  very  anx- 
ious to  have  Mr.  Curry  in  the  Senate,  because  I  know 
him  well,  and  know  him  to  be  a  pure  man,  as  well  as  a 
man  of  brilliant  talents  and  extraordinary  working  qual- 
ities. I  know  of  no  man  in  the  State  or  Confederacy  of 
more  promising  qualities  for  usefulness  in  Congress;  and 
there  is  none  of  purer  morals,  or  more  unbending  integ- 
rity. Besides,  I  think  the  time  has  come  when  West 
Alabama  should  be  known  to  the  country.  Heretofore 
the  idea  has  been,  that  no  man,  however  talented, — how- 
ever sound  in  political  sentiment, — however  pure  in 
character, — could  have  his  claims  to  represent  the  State 
in  the  National  Senate  considered,  unless  he  could  have 
the  geographical  recommendation  of  a  residence  in  North 
Alabama  or  South  Alabama.  East  and  West  Alabama 
have  been  ignored.  But  at  the  extra  session  you  took 
from  West  Alabama  her  patriotic  Jemison.  If  you  will 
now  secure  for  East  Alabama  her  just  but  long-deferred 
claims  to  a  name  and  a  place  in  the  State  by  electing  our 
young  and  gifted  Curry,  I  think  the  work  of  reform,  in 
this  respect,  will  be  in  the  right  direction  and  at  the 
right  time. 

■  ••••• 

I  shall  regard  it  as  a  personal  favor,  and  what  is  more, 
a  public  good,  if  you  will  throw  your  influence  in  favor 
of  Mr.  Curry. 
We  are  all  well. 

Your  friend  truly, 

Geo.  S.  Waldon. 


THE   EBBING    OF    THE    TIDE       173 

But  the  efforts  of  Curry's  advocates  were  un- 
availing. Whether  his  ''geographical  residence,"  so 
earnestly  urged  by  his  friend,  Waldon,  as  a  ground 
of  his  election,  put  him  at  a  disadvantage;  whether 
the  same  potent  causes  which  had  compassed  his 
defeat  for  the  House  of  Representatives  at  the  hands 
of  a  popular  constituency  four  months  before,  were 
again  at  work  among  the  members  of  the  legislature; 
whether  his  claims  were  not  vigorously  and  aggres- 
sively pressed;  or  whether  his  failure  was  the  result 
of  a  combination  of  these  causes,  is  now  beyond 
determination.  A  stronger  probability  than  any  of 
these  is  that  the  competition  of  some  of  the  ablest 
and  very  foremost  men  of  the  State  and  of  the  South 
was  too  great  to  be  overcome;  for  the  man  chosen 
by  the  Alabama  legislature  for  Confederate  States 
Senator  at  this  juncture  was  Richard  W.  Walker, 
who  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  statesmen  and 
leaders  of  the  young  republic. 

On  November  30,  1863,  Curry  set  out  for  Rich- 
mond to  serve  out  the  unexpired  period  of  his  final 
term  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  was 
nearly  a  week  in  reaching  the  Capitol.  Of  his  sub- 
sequent service  in  this  session  he  has  preserved  the 
following  record: — 

During  the  session  I  presided  much,  and  made  two 
speeches, — one  in  favor  of  negotiating,  even  with  Benja- 
min F.  Butler,  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners;  and  the 
other  on  offering  commercial  privileges  to  some  Euro- 
pean nation  to  recognize  us,  and  intervene  with  arms. 

In  the  early  part  of  February  (1864),  a  joint  committee 
headed  by  Semmes  of  the  Senate  and  Clapp  of  the 
House,  was  appointed  to  prepare  an  address  to  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Confederate  States.     Senator  Semmes  was  to 


174      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

draft  so  much  of  the  address  as  related  to  Congressional 
legislation;  but  he  failed  to  perform  the  task.  To  my- 
self the  remainder  was  assigned.  The  Committee  ap- 
proved my  address.  I  read  it  to  the  House  amid  much 
applause;  and  so  enthusiastic  was  the  approbation,  that 
every  member  of  both  Houses  signed  it.  Several  thou- 
sand copies  were  ordered  to  be  published,  for  circulation 
among  the  people  and  in  the  army.  When  I  joined  the 
army  a  few  months  afterwards,  the  officers,  knowing  my 
authorship  of  the  address,  gave  me  most  cordial  and 
flattering  receptions. 

Before  Congress  adjourned,  I  purchased  cavalry  equip- 
ments, intending  to  join  the  53rd  Alabama  Cavalry 
regiment,  in  which  my  brother  Thomas  was  a  captain. 
Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart  had  previously  written  a  letter  to 
President  Davis,  asking  my  appointment  as  Judge  of  the 
military  court  for  his  corps.  Gen.  Longstreet  also  ten- 
dered me  a  position  on  his  staff. 

Congress  adjourned,  and  Curry's  term  of  service 
expired  on  February  18,  1864,  with  the  clouds  thick- 
ening about  the  doomed  Confederacy.  He  went 
South  to  complete  his  arrangements  for  entering  the 
army,  moved  by  an  eager  spirit  of  aiding  the  cause 
to  which  he  had  devoted  himself  in  whatever  way 
his  service  might  prove  available.  He  reached 
Talladega  on  the  24th;  and  on  the  15th  of  March, 
at  the  invitation  of  General  Leonidas  Polk,  the 
Bishop-soldier  of  the  Confederacy,  he  went  to  De- 
mopolis,  in  the  western  part  of  the  State,  where  at 
a  grand  review  of  the  ragged  army  of  the  South,  he 
had  the  pleasure  of  addressing  several  acres  of 
soldiers. 

Before  the  expiration  of  the  sixty  days'  furlough 
which  he  had  obtained  UDon  the  adjournment  of 
Congress,  he  received  an  unsolicited  appointment 


THE   EBBING   OF   THE   TIDE       175 

from  President  Davis  to  the  position  of  Commissioner 
under  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  to  serve  with  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnston's  army,  but  not  under  him. 

"My  duties  were  judicial,"  he  states,  " — to  investigate 
charges  of  disloyalty  and  treason  preferred  against  civil- 
ians; and  hence,  by  some  persons,  I  am  called  'Judge.' 

"I  went  to  Dalton,  Georgia,  in  April,  1864;  and  hav- 
ing little  to  do  in  connection  with  my  office,  I  spent  the 
most  of  my  time  in  visiting  the  various  camps,  and 
familiarizing  myself  with  military  movements.  Many 
brigades  were  addressed  by  me;  and  mj'-  services  in  this 
line  were  much  sought  after.  Gen.  Johnston  had  a  grand 
review,  to  infuse  fresh  confidence  into  his  men.  The 
display  of  banners  and  muskets  and  mimic  warfare  was 
very  magnificent. 

"A  gracious  revival  pervaded  the  army,  while  in  camp. 
Meetings  were  held  every  night.  Chaplains  and  other 
preachers  held  religious  services.  I  heard  Gen.  M.  P. 
Lowry,  a  Baptist  minister,  in  command  of  a  Mississippi 
brigade,  and  an  officer  much  trusted  by  Gen.  Johnston, 
quite  often.  Hundreds  of  soldiers  would  gather  in  the 
open  air  to  hear  the  simple  gospel;  and  the  converts  were 
very  numerous. 

"The  Georgia  Baptist  Convention  met  this  spring  in 
Atlanta;  and  I  attended  and  made  an  address  on  army 
colportage.  Here  I  saw  for  the  first  time  Governor 
Joseph  E.  Brown,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Convention." 

Curry  was  not  yet  an  ordained  minister;  but  his 
notes  are  full  of  references  to  religious  matters.  He 
has  left  an  account  of  religion  in  the  Southern  army 
among  the  soldiers,  in  his  ''Civil  History  of  the  Con- 
federate States";  and  no  one  can  read  the  frequent 
entries  which  he  has  made  in  his  journals  and  mem- 
orahilia  without  a  deep  sense  of  his  piety  and  of  his 
lofty  spiritual  character.     The  religious  spirit  seems 


176     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

from  the  beginning  to  have  dominated  his  Ufe;  and, 
over  and  above  the  figure  of  the  pohtician,  states- 
man, orator,  and  educator,  shines  about  him  with 
an  ever  increasing  lustre  the  halo  of  an  humble  serv- 
ant of  Christ. 

When  in  May,  1864,  General  Johnston  began  his 
retreat  towards  Atlanta,  he  requested  Curry  to  serve 
on  his  staff  as  special  aide.  Inasmuch  as  the  latter's 
regular  official  duties  were  suspended  by  the  stress 
and  exigency  of  military  operations,  he  consented  to 
accept  this  office;  and  thus  became  attached  to 
General  Johnston's  staff,  of  which  he  remained  a 
member  until  his  detail  elsewhere  in  the  following 
July. 

/  Curry's  associations  with  General  Johnston  be- 
came close  and  intimate;  and  he  came,  from  obser- 
vation and  study,  to  form  a  very  high  estimate  of 
the  character  and  ability  of  the  great  Confederate 
general,  who  as  a  tactician,  disciplinarian,  and  a 
master  of  logistics  by  the  impartial  testimony  of 
military  criticism,  was  without  a  superior  in  the 
armies  of  the  Confederacy. 

"Gen.  Johnston,"  he  writes  of  the  retreat  before  Sher- 
man, "conducted  this  campaign  with  unsurpassed  skill 
and  strategy,  thwarting  the  enemy's  plans  and  designs, 
inflicting  heavy  losses  upon  him,  losing  not  over  five 
thousand  of  his  own  men,  whose  enthusiastic  confi- 
dence he  preserved  to  the  end.  In  this  retreat,  such 
was  the  forethought  of  the  commander,  that  while 
preserving  and  improving  the  morale  of  his  men,  the 
Commissary  was  managed  with  consummate  energy  and 
ability.     .     .     . 

"At  Cartersville  a  battle-order  was  read,  proper  dis- 
position of  troops  was  made  for  attacking  the  enemy, — 


THE   EBBING   OF   THE   TIDE       177 

and  with  shouts  and  strong  hopes  our  boys  reversed 
their  march.  Hood,  on  the  right,  was  to  attack,  and  to 
be  supported  by  Polk  in  the  centre  and  Hardee  on  the 
left.  By  some  fatal  misinformation.  Hood,  instead  of 
attacking,  fell  back  to  his  lines  of  the  morning,  reporting 
that  he  was  flanked.  His  blunder  and  error  defeated  the 
plan.  Johnston  was  excited  and  mad  at  the  frustration 
of  a  plan  devised  and  prepared  for  some  days  before. 
Still  he  arranged  his  men  for  meeting  the  enemy  on  the 
next  day.  In  the  morning,  his  purpose  was  to  attack 
Sherman's  army  in  detail,  knowing  they  were  divided 
and  separated  by  travelling  on  two  roads.  At  night-fall 
Gen.  Johnston,  with  several  of  us,  rode  along  the  line; 
and  Gen.  Johnston  remarked  on  the  rapidity  and  tact 
with  which  our  boys  had  thrown  up  temporary  breast- 
works. As  we  returned  to  headquarters,  the  General 
told  us  to  get  a  good  rest,  as  we  should  have  plenty  of 
work  on  to-morrow.  An  hour  or  so  after  retiring  (Col. 
E.  J.  Harvie,  an  Inspector-general  and  myself  tented 
together),  we  were  summoned  to  Gen.  Johnston's  tent. 
At  a  council,  Hood  said  that  he  could  not  hold  his  posi- 
tion; Polk  was  doubtful;  Hardee  wanted  to  jBght.  Gen. 
Johnston  reluctantly,  and  ever  since  regretfully,  yielded 
to  two  of  his  corps  commanders,  and  gave  orders  to  fall 
back  across  the  river.  I  was  sent  to  Gen.  Wheeler's 
camp,  some  distance  on  the  right,  to  summon  him  to 
Gen.  Johnston,  to  receive  instructions  about  protecting 
our  rear  with  his  cavalry." 

Curry's  estimate  of  Johnston  has  value  as  afford- 
ing an  intimate  view  of  a  man  who  did  not  wear  his 
heart  on  his  sleeve: 

"Frequently  I  rode  with  General  Johnston  at  night, 
and  he  would,  when  in  a  talking  mood,  tell  me  of  Marl- 
borough's and  Wellington's  and  Napoleon's  campaigns, 
which  seemed  as  familiar  to  him  as  the  alphabet.    When 


178      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

he  had  travelled  as  far  as  he  intended,  he  would  dis- 
mount, wrap  himself  in  a  blanket,  and  be  asleep  in  five 
minutes.  He  was  singularly  reticent  in  reference  to  his 
plans, — kept  his  own  counsels,  but  had  marvellous  facil- 
ity in  finding  out  the  movements  and  plans  of  the  enemy. 
The  cavalry  was  utilized  and  made  to  subserve  its  legiti- 
mate office  of  acting  as  eyes  and  ears  for  the  infantry 
and  artillery." 

After  the  war  was  ended,  and  the  events  of  that 
momentous  struggle  had  become  matters  of  history, 
General  Johnston,  in  a  conversation  with  Curry, 
said  to  him  that  he  would  not  have  asked  any- 
thing better  of  Sherman  than  what  he  attempted 
with  Hood.  But  Hood  failed  him  in  the  ultimate 
issue;  and  the  event,  which  Johnston  planned 
and  wished,  was  not  to  be.  Johnston  and  Sher- 
man, as  great  military  tacticians,  were  antago- 
nists worthy  each  of  the  other.  They  were  pitted 
against  each  other  in  many  indecisive  contests,  where 
some  extraneous  circumstance,  beyond  the  control 
of  either,  frustrated  their  respective  plans;  and  it 
seems  that  Death,  the  great  conqueror,  at  the  very 
end,  preserved  the  impartial  balance  between  them. 
''By  an  irony  of  fate,"  writes  Curry  in  his  later  years, 
"Gen.  Johnston,  as  pall-bearer  at  the  funeral  of 
Gen.  Sherman,  on  a  wet  and  cold  day,  contracted  a 
cold  which  resulted  in  his  death." 

On  the  9th  of  July,  1864,  Johnston  reached  his 
fortifications  at  Atlanta  in  safety.  During  the  prog- 
ress of  the  ensuing  siege,  Curry  went  across  the 
country  on  horseback  to  Talladega.  On  the  17th 
of  July,  during  his  absence,  Johnston  was  relieved 
of  the  command  of  the  army  of  the  defense,  and 
Hood   was   put   in   his   place.    Soon   after   Curry 


THE   EBBING   OF    THE    TIDE       179 

reached  Atlanta,  upon  his  return  from  Talladega, 
his  office  as  Commissioner  under  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  expired  by  limitation;  and  at  the  request  of 
General  Joseph  Wheeler,  he  joined  that  officer  as 
special  aide,  in  an  expedition  to  travel  in  the  rear  of 
Sherman's  army,  and  to  cut  his  communications. 
It  was  a  congenial  duty  to  the  diminutive  Confed- 
erate General,  whose  soul  was  bigger  than  his  body, 
and  who  will  be  remembered  in  history,  not  only  for 
his  heroic  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy, 
but  no  less  for  his  loyalty  to  a  reunited  country, 
which  made  him  one  of  the  most  picturesque  figures 
in  the  Spanish-American  emeute  of  1898. 

Curry  writes  of  this  episode  with  Wheeler: — 

We  first  struck  the  road  at  Dalton,  and  captured  the 
place  after  a  brisk  little  engagement,  taking  about  100 
prisoners.  .  .  .  Moving  up  the  railroad,  and  tearing 
up  rails,  we  encountered  some  colored  troops,  the  first  I 
had  seen.  We  marched  to  Cleveland,  hoping  to  cross 
the  Tennessee  River;  but  the  late  heavy  rains  had 
swelled  it,  so  as  to  be  not  fordable.  We  passed  through 
Athens,  and  some  stores  were  "  gutted."  On  this  expedi- 
tion we  were  forbidden  to  encumber  horses  with  any 
surplus  clothing;  and  we  ate  just  what  we  "picked  up," 
en  route.  For  a  portion  of  the  time  our  principal  food 
was  green  corn.  Gen.  Wheeler  was  compelled  to  make  a 
wide  detour  to  cross  the  swollen  river,  which  he  finally 
accomplished,  with  a  little  resistance  east  of  Knoxville. 
While  tearing  up  the  railroad  at  McMillan's  Depot,  we 
had  a  little  fight  and  dispersed  the  enemy.  As  the  rail- 
road between  Chattanooga  and  Nashville  was  the  line 
of  communication  to  be  cut,  the  General  struck  across 
the  country. 

He  requested  me  to  cross  the  Clinch  River  at  Clinton, 
to  the  right  of  his  line  of  march,  and  get  what  informa- 


180     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

tion  I  could.  With  a  few  men  I  hurried  on,  and  came 
to  a  country  mill,  with  a  large  "overshot"  wheel,  situa- 
ted on  a  beautiful  stream  of  water,  and  embowered  in  a 
dense  forest.  Two  Federal  soldiers  were  captured,  and  a 
middle-aged  woman,  bare-footed,  in  homespun  frock, 
apparently  the  owner  of  the  mill,  came  to  the  door  and 
accosted  me.  The  door  was  about  ten  feet  from  the 
ground,  and  a  broad  slab  was  the  only  means  of  entrance 
and  exit.  Being  of  Union  sympathies,  and  furious  be- 
cause of  the  capture  of  the  men,  she  poured  upon  my 
head,  vehemently  and  volubly,  a  torrent  of  oaths,  the 
most  vulgar,  blasphemous  and  horrid  that  I  ever  heard 
fall  from  human  lips.  Threatening  me  with  vengeance 
from  a  brigade  of  soldiers,  which  she  affirmed  was 
nearby,  she  began  to  descend  the  pathway  from  the 
mill,  without  ceasing  her  vocabulary  of  opprobrious  and 
disgusting  epithets.  Riding  my  horse  across  the  slab,  I 
informed  her  that  she  must  remain  where  she  was.  This 
infuriated  her  afresh,  and  drew  upon  me  another  volley, 
not  less  offensive  and  wicked  than  she  had  given  previ- 
ously, of  her  abundant  imprecations.  Persisting  in  the 
avowal  of  her  purpose,  I  ordered  one  of  my  men  to  tie 
her,  and  put  her  on  one  of  the  captured  horses,  and  carry 
her  to  headquarters.  Quieted  and  convinced  by  my 
calm  purpose,  she  withdrew  to  the  mill,  and  we  pursued 
our  journey.     .     .     . 

By  the  way,  the  rural  population  of  East  Tennessee 
was  unrefined,  ignorant,  vicious  and  disloyal  to  the 
Confederacy. 

Curry,  continuing  his  account  of  his  military  ex- 
periences of  this  period,  writes: — 

We  crossed  the  railroad  south  of  Nashville;  but  our 
circuitous  journeying  and  long  delay  had  defeated  the 
project  of  breaking  up  communications.  Tearing  up  the 
road  a  little,  we  marched  towards  Franklin,  where  we 


THE   EBBING   OP    THE    TIDE       181 

had  quite  a  severe  engagement,  and  General  Kelly,  an 
accomplished  young  officer,  was  mortally  wounded.  I 
was  in  a  few  paces  of  him  when  he  was  shot.  Under  a 
flag  of  truce  General  Wheeler  requested  the  kind  atten- 
tions of  Colonel  Brownlow,  in  command  of  the  opposing 
troops,  to  his  friend  and  comrade,  and  it  is  a  proper 
tribute  to  Colonel  Brownlow  to  say  that  the  Confederate 
officer,  during  his  few  remaining  days,  received  the  kind- 
ness that  a  chivalrous  adversary  delights  to  render. 

At  a  little  town  south  of  Franklin,  we  had  another 
engagement;  and  there  I  saw  women  on  the  streets,  in 
the  midst  of  the  fray,  cheering  our  men.  The  tyranny  of 
Federal  occupation  drove  them  nearly  to  despair.  Trav- 
elling south,  the  corps  forded  the  Tennessee  River,  a 
dangerous  enterprise,  below  Decatur,  Alabama;  and  while 
General  Wheeler  halted  to  rest  his  command  and  await 
orders  and  information  from  Gen.  Hood,  who  had  been 
''flanked"  out  of  Atlanta,  and  whipped,  I  made  a  "flying 
trip"  to  Talladega. 

On  the  6th  of  October,  1864,  Curry  started  for 
North  Alabama  to  discharge  his  duties  as  Judge 
Advocate  with  a  military  court,  composed  of  Gen- 
eral Leroy  Pope  Walker  of  Alabama,  Colonel  Dowd 
of  Mississippi,  Colonel  House  of  Tennessee,  and 
another  officer. 

"We  reached  Courtland,  General  Roddy's  headquar- 
ters," he  writes,  "on  the  17th.  Reporting  to  General 
Roddy,  who  greatly  desired  my  presence  and  assistance, 
on  account  of  the  disturbed  state  of  affairs  in  North 
Alabama,  I  was  appointed  his  aide  pro  tempore.  There 
was  much  disloyalty  in  that  portion  of  the  State,  and  the 
facility  of  intercourse  with  the  Federal  army  made  cau- 
tious dealing  very  necessary." 

On  October  30  Generals  Hood  and  Beauregard 
reached    Courtland,    en   route    for    Nashville.      On 


182      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

November  2  General  Roddy  and  his  staff  arrived 
at  Tuscumbia,  where  Hood  was  then  encamped,  and 
was  slowly  getting  ready  for  his  proposed  invasion 
of  Tennessee.  General  Beauregard  had  already 
departed.     Curry  continues: — 

The  difference  betwixt  his  (Hood's)  and  General  John- 
ston's handhng  of  troops  was  most  manifest.  General 
Hood  seemed  to  be  at  a  loss  what  to  do;  and  his  equip- 
ments and  appointments,  for  which  no  blame  attaches 
to  him,  were  most  inadequate. 

General  Roddy,  with  his  brigade  of  cavalry,  was 
ordered  west,  to  make  observations  and  to  prevent 
any  movement  from  Memphis.  By  means  of  a 
pontoon  bridge.  General  Hood  and  his  army  crossed 
the  Tennessee  River  to  Florence;  and  on  Sunday, 
November  21,  started  northwards  for  Tennessee. 
Meanwhile  Roddy's  brigade,  to  which  Curry  was 
attached,  remained  at  luka  and  Corinth.  About 
this  time  Colonel  Josiah  Patterson,  commanding  the 
Fifth  Alabama  regiment,  was  assigned  to  other 
duties;  and  Curry  was  transferred  to  the  command 
of  the  regiment  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel. 
The  circumstances  of  this  promotion  of  one,  who 
was  scarcely  more  than  a  civilian  in  experience,  were 
recalled  in  a  letter  written  in  1897,  by  Colonel  Pat- 
terson : — 

Memphis,  Tenn.,  Oct.  22,  1897. 
Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry, 

My  dear  Sir:  Soon  after  your  retirement  from  the 
Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  I  met  you  at  General 
Wheeler's  headquarters,  when  you  told  me  you  had 
entered  the  army.  About  that  time  the  Lt.  Colonel  of 
my  Regiment,  the  5th  Alabama  Cavalry,  was  appointed 
Colonel  of  the  10th  Alabama  Cavalry,  thereby  making  a 


THE   EBBING   OF    THE    TIDE       183 

vacancy  in  my  Regiment.  The  officers  of  my  Regiment, 
without  exception,  waived  right  to  promotion,  and  you 
were,  by  the  unanimous  request  of  the  officers  of  the 
Regiment,  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Lt.  Colonel.  Subse- 
quently I,  with  the  rank  of  Colonel,  commanded  the 
brigade  to  which  the  5th  Alabama  Cavalry  was  attached; 
and  you,  with  the  rank  of  Lt.  Colonel,  commanded  that 
Regiment  to  the  close  of  the  war. 

Very  truly  yours, 

JosiAH  Patterson. 

Curry  assumed  the  duties  of  his  new  office  at 
Corinth  on  the  29th;  and  at  dress-parade  he  made 
the  regiment  an  address,  which  was  received  wdth 
the  applause  that  was  the  usual  accompaniment  of 
his  oratory  and  his  personal  popularity.  That  his 
rapid  advancement  as  a  soldier  was  not  due  to 
political  or  other  influence  than  that  commanded 
by  his  military  worth,  was  later  attested  by  high 
authority.  In  a  speech  on  the  floor  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  United  States,  March  9, 
1898,  General  Joseph  Wheeler  asserted  that  Curry 
had  earned  his  rank  by  bravery  in  battle. 

With  the  zeal  and  industry  and  adaptability  which 
characterized  him  in  every  station  in  life,  he  set  him- 
self to  work  at  once  to  become  proficient  in  the  art 
of  war. 

"I  soon  mastered  Wheeler's  Tactics,"  he  writes,  "and 
drilled  the  Regiment  every  day,  Sundays  excepted,  when 
not  engaged  in  active  service.  The  Regiment  was  un- 
disciplined and  badly  armed,  and  not  homogeneous. 
While  my  relations  wath  the  Regiment  were  pleasant, 
and  I  had  the  entire  confidence  of  officers  and  men,  it 
was  a  sore  trial  to  put  and  keep  in  'fighting  trim' 
men  who  were  generally  not  well  officered,  and  who  were 


184     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

partially  demoralized  by  serving  in  the  immediate  vicin- 
ity of  their  homes  and  families.  It  is  simple  justice, 
however,  to  say  that  I  never  saw  more  gallantry  and 
courage  than  were  frequently  displayed  by  some  of  the 
officers  and  men. 

"In  this  connection,  I  can  do  no  better  than  stop  and 
pay  a  just  tribute  to  General  Roddy.  He  has  been  much 
misrepresented,  and  since  the  war  his  conduct  has  not 
been  free  from  censure.  I  never  witnessed  in  him  any 
other  than  a  jealous  and  watchful  purpose  to  serve  his 
country  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  He  had  a  difficult 
command,  requiring  much  tact  and  patience  to  manage, 
and  a  wide  extent  of  territory  to  guard;  and  of  his  per- 
sonal courage  there  can  be  no  question." 

On  December  24  Curry  and  his  command 
reached  Rogersville  in  Northern  Alabama,  near 
the  Tennessee  line.  Here  he  was  ordered  back  by 
General  Hood,  who  had  only  a  few  days  before 
fought  the  disastrous  battles  of  Franklin  and  Nash- 
ville. Curry  accordingly  fell  back  on  the  25th, 
moving  in  a  southwestward  direction  to  Florence. 
It  was  a  cold,  wet  day;  and  there  was  scarcely  a 
mouthful  of  food  for  either  men  or  horses.  "I  have 
no  pleasant  associations,"  he  declares,  ''of  that 
Christmas."  Thousands  of  soldiers  were  retreating 
from  Tennessee  in  confusion  and  disorder;  and  the 
roads  were  so  cut  up  by  wagons  and  artillery  as  to 
be  almost  impassable. 

On  December  29th,  1864,  Curry's  regiment 
marched  to  Pond  Spring,  east  of  Courtland;  and 
on  the  next  day,  with  about  one  hundred  men,  he 
fought  a  regiment  of  Federal  cavalry,  and  was 
driven  back  to  Courtland. 

"Infantry  and  cavalry,"  he  states,  "were  completely 


THE   EBBING   OF   THE   TIDE       185 

demoralized,  regarding  our  defeat  as  accomplished  and 
resistance  as  hopeless.  With  such  men  as  I  could  or- 
ganize I  had  several  skirmishes  with  Yankees, — very 
nearly  escaping  capture,  as  the  enemy  charged  within  a 
few  paces  and  fired  in  very  uncomfortable  proximity. 
I  should  have  surrendered,  but  that  I  dreaded  the  im- 
prisonment and  the  separation  from  my  family." 

From  the  first  to  the  tenth  of  January,  1865, 
Curry  and  the  enemy  played  at  hide  and  seek  in 
Northern  Alabama,  through  Franklin,  Lawrence 
and  Morgan  counties.  One  night  he  enjoyed  the 
luxury  of  a  bed  in  Newburg,  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
McCaughey,  the  father  of  his  adjutant.  About  the 
twelfth  of  the  month  Colonel  Patterson  rejoined 
the  regiment,  near  Sim's  Mill  in  Morgan  County; 
and  Curry's  labors  and  anxieties  as  commanding 
officer  were  relieved. 

On  the  20th  of  the  month  Curry  learned  of  the 
extreme  illness  of  his  wife,  and  started  home,  in 
company  with  two  gentlemen  of  the  name  of  Orr, 
who  lived  near  Danville,  Alabama.  He  reached 
home  on  the  23rd,  where  he  remained  till  the  31st. 
On  that  date,  with  a  sense  of  duty  impelling  him  to 
return  to  the  front,  he  left,  and  never  saw  his  wife 
again.  Reaching  the  camp  at  Sim's  Mill  on  Feb- 
ruary 3,  he  was  once  more  put  in  command  of  his 
regiment,  a  portion  of  which  was  employed  in 
guarding  a  long  stretch  of  the  river. 

On  March  16,  1865,  he  was  assigned  command 
in  North  Alabama,  having  under  him  the  Fifth 
Alabama  Cavalry  and  Stewart's  Battalion.  At  that 
time  a  cavalry  corps,  under  the  Federal  General 
Wilson,  was  preparing  for  a  raid  through  Alabama. 
By  courier-line  Curry  reported  nearly  every  day  to 


186      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

General  Wirt  Adams,  at  Montevallo.  On  the  25th, 
in  obedience  to  orders,  he  moved  southwards.  At 
Elyton,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  28th,  the  Federals 
came  into  the  town  just  as  Curry's  force  had  passed. 
A  half  hour  later  he  would  have  been  intercepted. 
On  the  30th  Colonel  Patterson  resumed  command; 
and  Curry,  asking  for  and  obtaining  a  detail,  con- 
cealed himself  near  the  road,  in  order  to  get  infor- 
mation concerning  the  strength  of  the  enemy.  He 
counted  nearly  four  thousand,  and  reported  to 
General  Forrest,  who  was  advancing  to  meet  the 
foe.  Wilson's  whole  command  numbered  nearly 
ten  thousand  men.  Curry,  being  cut  off  by  the 
delay  in  counting,  had  to  make  a  wide  detour,  and 
was  unable  to  join  the  main  body  of  the  Confed- 
erates for  two  days.  Overtaking  General  Forrest's 
command,  and  rejoining  his  own  on  April  1,  he  was 
ordered  to  protect  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  column. 

"Deploying  what  men  I  had,"  he  writes,  "I  skirmished 
with  the  enemy  through  Plantersville,  slowly  falling  back 
to  give  the  wagons  time  to  get  out  of  the  way.  While 
resisting  the  attack,  a  ball,  with  a  heavy  thump,  struck 
and  entered  my  haversack,  perforating  my  coat,  breaking 
a  hair-brush,  and  making  sixty  holes  in  a  New  York 
Tribune,  which  I  had  been  carrying  for  two  weeks  with- 
out an  opportunity  to  open  and  read.  This  paper,  now 
in  the  Confederate  Museum  at  Richmond,  undoubtedly 
saved  my  life.  When  Greeley  was  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  I  sent  him  by  a  friend  a  jocular  message, 
that  if  elected  he  could  not  take  the  oath  of  office,  as  he 
had  certainly  given  'aid  and  comfort'  to  his  country's 
enemy." 

On  Sunday,  April  2,  1865,  Curry  was  the  last 
man  to  enter  the  breastworks  at  Selma,  where  he 


THE   EBBING   OF    THE    TIDE       187 

found  General  Forrest's  troops  posted,  awaiting  the 
Federal  attack.  In  a  few  minutes  the  enemy  ap- 
peared in  front ;  and,  after  reconnoissance,  attacked 
in  force,  quite  to  Curry's  left,  where  Armstrong's 
brigade  was  stationed.  The  firing  was  very  heavy 
for  twenty  or  thirty  minutes;  then  the  Federals 
charged  the  breastworks,  and  driving  the  Confed- 
erates pell-mell,  followed  the  fugitives  into  Selma, 
killing  and  capturing  the  larger  part  of  them.  The 
Confederate  command,  hemmed  in  by  the  Alabama 
and  Cahawba  Rivers,  was  in  desperate  straits,  from 
which  it  might  escape  only  with  great  difficulty. 

Curry,  who  makes  record  of  the  episode  as  includ- 
ing "the  most  terrible  night  of  his  life,"  says: — 

I  held  my  position,  not  violently  assailed,  until  the 
enemy  had  gotten  betwixt  me  and  the  town.  Seeing 
everything  in  confusion,  and  our  army  routed,  my  men 
became  uncontrollable,  and  sought  safety.  With  a  squad 
adhering  to  me,  I  crossed  the  fortifications,  as  to  go  into 
Selma  was  capture  or  death.  Avoiding  the  road,  on 
which  were  Federal  troops,  I  soon  found  myself  in  the 
woods,  and  in  a  swamp.  May  I  be  spared  from  such 
another  night !  The  Federals  fired  the  government  build- 
ings, the  foundries  and  naval  works  and  magazines, 
which  amid  the  awful  explosions  ignited  and  consumed 
the  business  portion  of  the  city.  The  din  was  fearful. 
The  rattle  of  musketry,  the  music  of  brass  bands,  the 
explosion  of  shells,  the  shrieks  of  women,  made  a  second 
Tophet.  The  burning  town  made  an  illumination  which 
extended  for  several  miles.  Amid  the  hurrahing  of  vic- 
tors, and  the  tramping  of  pursuers  and  pursued,  I  walked 
nearly  the  whole  night.  The  next  day,  avoiding  the 
scouts  of  the  cavalry,  I  found  my  way  to  Mr.  Mims',  and 
spent  the  night. 

The  next  day,  with  two  men,  I  lay  in  the  woods.    At 


188      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

night,  as  the  country  was  full  of  cavalry,  we  travelled; 
and  just  at  day  I  paid  a  negro  five  dollars  in  Confederate 
money, — all  of  any  kind  I  had, — to  put  us  across  Ca- 
hawba  River  in  a  canoe.  A  young  horse,  which  Mr. 
Mims  loaned  me,  swam  by  the  boat.  On  the  west  bank 
of  the  river  we  were  safe.  My  two  companions  soon  left 
me,  and  I  rode  to  Marion.  On  the  street  I  met  Judge 
Porter  King,  who  invited  me  to  his  house,  and  fed  myself 
and  horse.  I  found  in  the  town  General  Forrest,  who 
had  effected  his  escape  from  Selma;  and  I  promptly  re- 
ported to  him  for  duty. 

Curry  spent  a  period  of  several  days,  extending 
from  the  8th  to  the  14th  of  April,  at  Greensboro, 
Alabama,  in  collecting  what  remained  of  his  scat- 
tered command.  On  the  14th  he  received  orders  to 
muster  his  forces  in  the  vicinity  of  Montevallo  or 
Elyton,  and  to  guard  the  prairie  country  against 
any  approach  of  the  enemy  from  the  direction  of 
the  Tennessee  River.  The  orders  were  from  For- 
rest, and  were  characteristic;  for  they  contained 
the  further  instruction  that  Curry  was  to  report  to 
General  Dick  Taylor  at  Meridian,  to  General  Adams 
at  Montgomery,  or  to  Forrest  himself  at  Gaines- 
ville, or  wherever  he  might  establish  his  headquar- 
ters. Colonel  Stewart  was  to  report  to  Curry;  and 
Curry,  in  addition  to  ''guarding  the  prairie-country" 
with  his  scanty  and  disorganized  troops,  was  to 
establish  a  courier-line  from  Greensboro  to  Talla- 
dega,— a  distance  of  over  a  hundred  miles. 

Everything  was  in  great  confusion  and  turmoil; 
but  in  the  midst  of  it,  officers  and  soldiers  alike 
were  in  happy  ignorance  that  General  Lee  had 
already  surrendered  at  Appomattox  on  the  9th  of 
the  month,  to  an  overwhelming  enemy,  what  was 


THE   EBBING    OF    THE    TIDE       189 

left  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia, — a  ragged 
and  starved  and  footsore  remnant  of  ''that  incom- 
parable array  of  bright  bayonets  and  tattered 
uniforms,"  whose  fidelity  and  courage  continued 
unfailing  to  the  end. 

On  the  morning  of  April  17,  while  trying  to  get 
his  wagons  and  men  across  the  flush  and  flooded 
Cahawba  River  at  Centreville,  Curry  received  by 
private  messenger  the  intelligence  that  his  wife  had 
died  on  April  8,  nine  days  before;  and  that  her 
death  had  been  hastened  by  a  current  and  appar- 
ently authentic  report  that  her  husband  had  been 
killed  at  the  battle  of  Selma.  It  was  a  tragic  end- 
ing to  a  union  that  had  been  a  very  happy  one. 

"She  was  a  pure,  noble  Christian  woman,  and  a  de- 
voted wife,"  is  the  tribute  which  he  pays  to  her  memory. 
"For  eighteen  years  our  lives  had  run  peacefully  and 
happily  together.  No  woman  sympathized  more  heartily 
with  the  Confederacy,  or  labored  more  self-denyingly  for 
the  soldiers  and  their  families.  My  wife  was  a  member 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church." 

Stricken  sorely  in  his  affections,  and  with  the 
cause,  that  he  held  close  at  heart,  in  apparently 
desperate  emergency,  and  in  reality  already  lost, 
he  started  homeward  on  a  journey  that  enabled  his 
official  duty  to  coincide  with  his  desire  to  be  with 
his  family. 

"Turning  over  my  little  command  to  Colonel  Stewart," 
he  writes,  "I  proceeded  to  reconnoitre  and  locate  the 
proposed  line  of  couriers,  and  to  look  after  my  motherless 
children, — Susie  Lamar  and  Manly  Bowie.  I  reached 
Talladega  and  my  home  on  the  18th,  the  day  of  Johnston's 
surrender  to  Sherman.     As  I  neared  my  honie,  my  slaves 


190      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

ran  up  the  road  to  greet  me,  with  sympathy  at  my  loss 
and  gladness  at  my  return." 

On  April  21  a  brigade  of  Federal  cavalry  passed 
through  Talladega. 

"Gathering  a  few  soldiers,"  says  Curry,  "I  counted 
them,  and  then  watched  their  movements,  to  report. 
While  in  a  lane,  I  captured  a  Federal  soldier,  and  took 
his  mule  and  arms.  As  I  was  protecting  my  prisoner 
from  the  thoughtless  insults  of  the  men  who  were  with 
me,  I  was  very  near  being  shot.  Unnoticed,  another 
Federal  soldier  had  approached  within  thirty  yards  of 
me.  When  I  discovered  him  he  was  taking  deliberate 
aim  at  me.  Gathering  my  bridle  and  spurring  my  horse, 
I  charged  upon  him,  and  fired  my  pistol.  He  fled  and  I 
was  only  too  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  escape,  as  several 
of  his  companions  were  in  sight." 

A  Federal  garrison,  under  General  Crysler  of 
New  York,  occupied  Talladega  on  May  13th.  To 
this  command,  Curry,  having  learned  of  Lee's  sur- 
render at  Appomattox  and  of  Johnston's  in  North 
Carolina,  and  realizing  that  the  great  struggle 
was  at  an  end,  reported  and  surrendered;  and 
was  paroled.  By  order  of  General  Canby,  he  was 
arrested  on  the  30th  of  the  same  month;  but  was 
again  discharged  on  his  personal  parole  the  same 
day. 

"The  arrest,"  he  states,  "grew  out  of  a  'cock  and  bull 
story'  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  that  I  had  favored  the 
assassination  of  Lincoln  and  the  cruel  treatment  of 
Federal  prisoners.  General  Crysler  treated  me  uniformly 
with  consideration  and  kindness;  but  he  was  accused, 
and  probably  not  wrongfully,  of  levying  'blackmail'  on 
citizens,  and  taking  cotton  for  his  own  use.  His  quarter- 
master took  corn  and  forage  and  meat  from  me  without 


THE   EBBING   OF    THE    TIDE       191 

the  slightest  compensation,  and  a  Michigan  regiment 
robbed  me  of  three  mules  in  open  daylight.  Of  course 
the  rascals  charged  'Uncle  Sam'  for  these  purchases." 

Talladega  County  was  now  under  martial  law; 
and  the  people  were  so  crushed  that  even  a  corporal 
could  commit  almost  any  depredation  upon  persons 
or  property  with  entire  impunity.  "The  Freed- 
man's  Bureau  was  instituted,"  says  Curry,  ''and 
some  of  the  fanatical  or  corrupt  agents  sought  to 
make  masters  support  their  former  slaves,  or  divide 
with  them  their  property.  Generally,  the  negroes 
behaved  well.  Mine,  with  one  exception,  remained 
on  the  place  as  usual.  I  stayed  at  home  quietly  on 
my  farm  with  my  two  children." 

In  September,  1865,  a  bill  of  information  was 
filed  against  Curry  in  the  Federal  District  Court  at 
Montgomery,  for  the  confiscation  of  his  property, 
on  the  grounds  that  he  had  been  engaged  in  armed 
rebellion  against  the  United  States;  that  he  had 
subscribed  largely  to  the  Confederate  Cotton  Loan; 
that  he  had  furnished  money,  provisions,  clothing, 
and  other  materials  for  the  use  of  persons  engaged 
in  the  ''rebellion,"  and  that  he  had  used  and  circu- 
lated the  paper  currency  and  bonds  of  the  State  of 
Alabama  and  of  the  Confederacy,  said  notes  and 
bonds  having  been  issued  for  the  purpose  of  waging 
war  against  the  United  States  Government. 

"This  information  from  the  District  Attorney,"  says 
Curry,  "was  never  served  on  me  by  the  Marshal,  but 
was  returned  as  executed;  and  I  was  thus  at  the  mercy 
of  as  despicable  and  unprincipled  a  set  of  adventurers 
and  robbers  as  ever,  under  official  sanction,  plundered  a 
helpless  people.  I  employed  Judge  William  R.  Chilton 
to  look  after  my  interests;  and  he  compromised  with  the 


192      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

ofRcials,  'hungry  as  dogs  and  merciless  as  wolves/  by 
the  payment  of  $250,  the  receipt  for  which  lying  before 
me,  is  the  evidence  of  the  robbery." 

In  October,  Curry  went  to  Washington  to  obtain 
a  pardon,  travelling  by  way  of  Chattanooga,  Nash- 
ville, Louisville  and  Cincinnati.  East  Tennessee 
was  not  considered  even  at  that  time  altogether 
safe  for  persons  who  had  been  in  active  sympathy 
with  the  Confederate  cause;  and  hence  Curry's 
wide  detour  to  reach  the  capitol. 

"On  the  22nd,"  he  writes,  "I  arrived  at  the  capitol 
city,  Congress  being  in  session.  On  the  23rd,  unattended 
by  any  person,  I  saw  the  Attorney  General  and  President 
Johnson.  The  latter  received  me  courteously  and  kindly. 
To  my  application  for  pardon,  he  made  no  immediate 
reply;  but  talked  freely  about  the  condition  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  state  of  feeling  at  the  South. 

"On  my  rising  to  leave,  he  expressed  a  wish  for  a  fur- 
ther conversation,  and  told  me  to  call  next  morning  at 
the  State  Department,  and  the  pardon  would  be  ready 
for  me.  In  Congress  I  had  had  a  pleasant  but  not  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  the  President,  when  he  was  a 
Senator  from  Tennessee.  I  was,  of  course,  prompt  in 
calling  on  the  24th  at  the  State  Department,  then  in  the 
upper  portion  of  the  Treasury  Building;  and  after  mak- 
ing and  signing  the  required  oath,  the  pardon,  with  the 
signatures  of  the  President  and  of  'W.  Hunter,  acting 
Secretary  of  State,'  attested  by  the  Great  Seal,  was 
handed  to  me." 

As  pertinent  to  his  subsequent  relations  with  the 
Federal  Government,  in  whose  service  he  later  occu- 
pied a  distinguished  position,  it  may  be  stated  here 
that  it  was  not  until  February  27,  1877,  that  the 
United  States  Senate  passed  the  bill  under  which 


THE   EBBING   OF    THE    TIDE        193 

Curry's  political  disabilities  were  removed.  The 
signing  of  this  bill  on  March  2  was  one  of  the  last 
official  acts  of  President  Grant. 

On  the  same  day  that  he  received  his  pardon,  he 
started  South  for  Richmond;  and  travelHng  thence 
he  reached  his  home  in  Talladega  on  the  last  day  of 
the  month. 


CHAPTER  XII 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE 


Before  the  War  between  the  States  politics  had 
absorbed  the  time  and  attention  of  most  thoughtful 
men  in  Alabama  and  the  lower  South,  but  it  was 
politics  of  a  high  kind.  The  war-smitten  people  of 
that  region  were  now  to  grapple  for  their  very  social 
existence  with  another  and  inconceivably  degraded 
form  of  politics.  For  six  years,  during  the  fateful 
period  of  Reconstruction,  fuller  of  bitterness  and 
suffering  and  degradation  than  the  fewer  years  of 
battle  and  defeat,  they  experienced  poverty  and 
detraction  and  woe  under  the  vicious  rule  of  the 
carpet-bagger,  the  ''scalawag"  and  the  newly- 
enfranchised  negro.  Of  the  evil  domination  of 
the  State  by  the  creatures  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau, 
and  of  its  looting  by  legislatures  composed  of  negroes 
and  their  more  offensive  and  reckless  white  allies, 
space  in  this  narrative  does  not  admit  the  telling. 
The  awful  mistake  of  the  reconstruction  theory, 
now  universally  admitted,  and  the  eternal  infamy 
of  the  reconstruction  period  are  written  in  indelible 
letters  upon  the  life  of  the  South.  Its  influences 
must  be  inferred  rather  than  discussed  in  these  pages. 

In  November  of  1865,  Curry,  with  his  heart  set 
upon  the  cause  of  religion  as  the  one  eternal  thing  to 
which  a  man  of  soul  could  repair  amid  the  overthrow 
of  all  old  standards,  attended  the  Baptist  State  Con- 

194 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE  195 

vention  at  Marion,  Alabama,  and  was  elected  its 
presiding  officer.  During  the  session  of  the  con- 
vention, the  trustees  of  Howard  College,  then  located 
at  Marion,  a  small  college  set  up  by  the  Baptist 
people,  elected  him  President  of  that  institution. 
At  this  time,  as  may  naturally  be  supposed,  the 
finances  of  the  school  were  at  a  low  ebb  and  on  an 
uncertain  basis.  But  there  were  those  who  realized, 
as  defeated  peoples  have  done  in  many  ages,  that 
the  resuscitation  of  their  impoverished  and  prostrate 
country  lay  in  the  hope  of  educating  the  unvan- 
quished  boys  and  girls,  with  a  new  world  awaiting 
their  activities.  Out  of  the  abundance  of  their  poverty 
these  people  subscribed  with  generous  unselfishness 
to  the  guarantee  of  the  President's  salary,  which  was 
fixed  at  $5,000  in  currency,  or  $3,500  in  gold. 

Curry  accepted  the  Presidency  of  the  college,  and 
removed  in  December,  1865,  to  Marion,  taking  with 
him  his  son.  Manly,  then  a  boy  eight  or  nine  years 
of  age,  whose  sister,  Susie,  a  young  girl  of  fifteen, 
had  in  the  preceding  October  been  entered  as  a  pupil 
in  the  Judson  Female  Institute,  in  the  same  town. 

Curry  writes  of  his  work  in  connection  with  the 
college : — 

Most  of  my  time,  after  a  little  teaching  in  moral  and 
mental  science,  and  political  economy,  was  given  to  travel 
through  the  States,  and  public  addresses  in  behalf  of  the 
college  and  general  education.  .  .  .  During  the  year 
I  visited  Selma,  Montgomery,  Tuskegee,  Jacksonville, 
Talladega,  Mobile,  Gainesville,  and  Mississippi. 

On  the  28th  of  January,  1866,  he  was  ordained  to 
the  gospel  ministry;  and,  as  a  fitting  accompaniment 
to  the  statement  of  so  serious  and  important  an 


196      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGEAPHY 

event  in  his  life,  his  own  account  of  his  rehgious 
history  and  experience  may  be  here  appropriately 
set  down: — 

"In  early  life,"  he  writes,  "my  parents  were  not  Chris- 
tians, although  moral,  upright  and  regular  attendants  on 
religious  worship.  The  only  denominations  in  the  lower 
part  of  Lincoln  County  were  Methodists  and  Baptists. 
I  remember  to  have  heard  George  F.  Pierce,  the  Bishop, 
when  he  was  a  young  man.  The  first  missionary  sermon 
I  ever  heard  was  at  Double  Branch  meeting-house,  by 
Dr.  C.  Mallory.  It  was  in  the  week,  drew  a  large  audi- 
ence, and  produced  a  profound  impression.  The  Baptist 
preachers  I  remember  were  Adams,  a  colored  man,  who 
preached  acceptably  to  white  people,  Taylor,  Juriah 
Harris,  and  John  L.  West.  The  last  was  often  at  my 
father's.  My  father's  house  was  always  a  welcome  and 
hospitable  home  for  all  preachers. 

"There  were  no  Sunday  Schools  near  me  when  I  was 
young.  In  fact,  I  never  was  a  member  of  a  Sunday 
school  until  I  was  married.  In  early  youth  I  had  no 
distinctive  religious  impressions  or  convictions.  My  sen- 
sibilities and  emotions  were  sometimes  awakened,  but 
were  physical  excitements  and  had  no  religious  basis. 
All  my  life  I  was  outwardly  moral.  I  never  uttered  an 
oath,  and  never  gambled,  although  I  learned  to  play 
cards  when  I  was  eight  or  nine  years  old.  When  at 
college,  I  attended  church,  more  because  it  was  a  college 
regulation  and  to  see  the  girls  than  for  any  other  pur- 
pose. I  used  to  hear  Dr.  Hoyt,  Drs.  Curry  (now — 1877 — 
of  New  York),  Means,  Smith,  Longstreet,  Chambliss, 
Albert  Williams,  Branham,  &c.  Of  the  Bible,  I  was 
stupidly  ignorant.  During  college,  I  had,  as  most  boys 
have  at  some  period  of  their  lives,  skeptical  notions; 
but  I  was  afraid  of  them,  and  deliberately  burned,  with- 
out reading,  Paine's  'Age  of  Reason,'  which  a  class-mate 
gave  to  me. 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE  197 

"When  at  the  Law  School,  I  heard  Theodore  Parker, 
Dr.  Walker,  Dr.  Kirk,  and  Baron  Stow;  but  had  no 
convictions  of  sin,  nor  desire  for  salvation. 

"After  my  return  from  the  Mexican  War,  there  was  a 
protracted  meeting  at  Kelly's  Springs,  and  my  father  was 
baptized.  His  baptism  made  a  deep  impression  on  me. 
During  the  meeting  I  was  admitted  into  the  church,  and 
was  baptized  by  Elder  Samuel  Henderson.  ...  I 
have  never  had  any  rapturous  experiences,  any  overpow- 
ering views  of  my  sinfulness  of  forgiveness;  and  to  this 
day,  with  humiliation  I  record  it,  I  have  never  had  any 
special  satisfaction  in  partaking  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 
I  know  the  depravity  of  my  heart,  the  need  of  regenera- 
tion, my  utter  inability  to  change  my  own  heart  and 
character.  I  believe  the  Bible,  the  atonement  of  Christ, 
its  all  sufficiency,  and  rely  simply  on  Christ's  work  and 
grace  for  salvation.  I  find  most  contentment  in  working 
for  my  Master,  although  I  am  sure  there  is  no  merito- 
riousness,  as  procuring  salvation,  in  any  human  right- 
eousness. I  have  often  wished  and  prayed  for  the  expe- 
riences that  some  Christians  have;  but  they  have  been 
denied  me,  or  possibly,  by  unbelief  I  have  denied  them 
to  myself. 

"In  1847,  I  attended  the  Alabama  Baptist  State  Con- 
vention at  Greensboro,  Alabama,  and  was  on  the  Com- 
mittee on  Education.  In  1848,  and  for  several  successive 
years,  I  was  a  delegate  to  Coosa  River  Association,  and  was 
the  Clerk  of  the  body,  writing  many  of  the  reports,  four  of 
which  bear  my  name.  In  1856  I  was  elected  Moderator 
and  so  continued  when  present.  In  1856  the  East  Ala- 
bama Baptist  Convention  was  organized,  and  I  was 
elected  President  for  two  or  three  sessions.  In  1865, 
and  for  a  few  sessions  thereafter,  I  was  elected  President 
of  the  Alabama  Baptist  State  Convention. 

"During  these  various  years,  I  taught  in  Sunday 
Schools,  made  missionary  and  other  religious  addresses, 
conducted    prayer-meetings,    and    sometimes    delivered 


198     J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

what  are  called  exhortations.  I  may  have  been  called 
an  active  lay-member.  Once,  by  my  Church,  I  was 
chosen  deacon  and  declined.  During  the  war,  when  in 
command  of  my  regiment,  I  sometimes,  in  the  absence  of 
the  chaplain,  or  in  default  of  one,  addressed  my  men  on 
practical  religion. 

"In  the  summer  of  1865,  at  Refuge  Church,  in  Talla- 
dega County,  Rev.  William  McCain,  the  pastor,  induced 
me  to  preach  my  first  regular  sermon.  In  August  and 
September  I  aided  J.  J.  D.  Renfroe,  my  pastor,  and  Dr. 
Spalding,  in  a  meeting  in  Talladega  town.  A  spectacle, 
novel  and  interesting,  was  that  of  a  Confederate  soldier 
and  a  Federal  soldier,  who  walked  into  the  water,  hand 
in  hand.  In  September,  I  aided  the  same  brethren  and 
Brother  O.  Welch,  the  pastor,  in  a  meeting  at  Talladega 
(now  Alpine)  church.  In  December,  I  assisted  Dr.  W. 
H.  Mcintosh  in  a  meeting  at  Marion,  Alabama.  All  these 
meetings  were  highly  successful. 

"I  have  been  invited  (I  write  this  on  22  March,  1877) 
to  pastorates  in  Selma,  Montgomery,  Mobile,  Atlanta, 
Augusta,  Wilmington,  Raleigh,  New  Orleans,  Memphis, 
St.  Louis,  San  Francisco,  Louisville,  Norfolk,  Richmond, 
Baltimore,  New  York,  Boston  and  Brooklyn;  but  I  have 
had  no  inclination  or  conviction  that  it  was  my  duty  to 
become  exclusively  a  preacher.  At  times  I  love  to  preach, 
and  I  am  profoundly  convinced  that  sacerdotal  ideas 
connected  with  the  ministry,  or  preaching,  have  been 
productive  of  untold  evil." 

The  intimacy,  simplicity  and  candor  of  this  state- 
ment not  only  reveal  the  pre-occupation  of  serious 
minded  men  of  that  age  in  religious  matters,  but 
constitute  of  themselves  a  sufficient  warranty  that 
Curry's  discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  most  high  and 
sacred  office  was  conscientious  and  earnest.  Al- 
though he  declined  invitation  after  invitation  of  the 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE  199 

most  flattering  character  to  accept  a  regular  pastor- 
ate, he  continued  nevertheless  to  do  a  great  deal  of 
preaching.  One  hundred  and  nineteen  sermons  were 
delivered  by  him  during  the  first  year  of  his  ministry, 
— an  extraordinary  intellectual  feat,  apart  from  the 
devotion  which  it  illustrates;  while,  in  addition,  he 
made  numerous  addresses  at  prayer-meetings,  Sun- 
day Schools,  associations,  conventions  and  mass- 
meetings.  He  visited  Richmond,  Baltimore  and 
Washington,  and  spoke  on  education  and  missions. 
He  had  beaten  the  sword  of  the  soldier  into  the 
reaping-hook  of  a  spiritual  harvest,  wherein  he 
labored  with  an  industry  and  persistence  which  vin- 
dicated his  assertion  that  he  ''loved  to  preach." 
The  influence  of  the  preacher  upon  the  life  of  the 
South  is  a  story  not  yet  adequately  told.  It  may 
be  doubted  if  the  world  has  quite  appreciated  the 
singular  religious  quality  of  the  Southern  people  and 
their  leaders  both  in  their  military  struggle  and  in 
the  period  of  grim  endurance  after  the  conflict. 
Great  revivals  frequently  swept  the  armies  and 
preachers  turned  caissons  into  pulpits.  From  the 
ministry  such  oflScers  as  Pendleton,  Lowry,  Evans, 
Capers,  Mell,  Shoup,  Dabney,  Harrison,  Willis, 
Peterkin,  Polk,  Smith,  and  Chapman  entered  the 
army  and  attained  great  distinction,  and  great 
preachers  like  Early,  Quintard,  Marvin,  Pierce, 
Doggett,  Palmer,  the  Hoges,  Jeter,  Burrows,  the 
Rylands,  Broadus,  Minnegerode,  Duncan,  Father 
Ryan,  shared  with  the  military  leaders  the  admira- 
tion and  esteem  of  the  soldiers  in  the  ranks.  The 
spectacle  of  Jackson  and  Gordon  holding  torches, 
in  order  that  the  Chaplain  might  read  the  Scrip- 
tures to  the  fierce  veterans  of  the  eastern  armies, 


200      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

recalls  Cromwell  and  his  Ironsides  in  another  age  of 
deep  feeling  and  high  purpose.  Near  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1866  Curry  was  invited  to  become 
a  co-secretary  of  the  American  Baptist  Home 
Mission  Society, — one  of  the  most  distinguished 
and  important  offices  of  his  church;  in  the  fol- 
lowing June  he  was  asked  to  assume  the  pastorate 
of  the  Selma  Baptist  Church  at  a  salary  of  S4,000; 
and  at  other  times  during  the  year  he  received  calls 
from  the  Coliseum  Baptist  Church,  in  New  Orleans, 
the  Second  Baptist  Church  in  Richmond,  and  the 
Franklin  Square  Baptist  Church  in  Baltimore.  In 
November,  at  the  Alabama  Baptist  State  Conven- 
tion, he  was  re-elected  President  of  that  body. 

This  is  the  record  of  a  busy  man,  honorably,  use- 
fully and  hopefully  employed,  and  of  a  tough  and 
vital  nature,  steeped  in  moral  purpose,  that  could 
thus  turn  without  complaint  or  cynicism  from  the 
excitements  and  ambitions  of  war  and  statesman- 
ship to  quieter  and  humbler,  but  essentially  greater, 
projects  of  rebuilding  and  social  service.  No  morbid 
despair  of  life,  no  idle  regret  for  lost  and  now  un- 
availing causes,  no  surrender  to  the  adversities  and 
calamities  which  had  befallen  him,  almost  before 
his  prime,  possessed  the  soul  of  Curry.  Undaunted 
and  undismayed,  he  buckled  on  the  whole  armor  of 
faith,  and  in  his  works  honored  God  and  aided  his 
fellow-man  with  a  will  that  defeat  could  not  check 
nor  humiliation  daunt.  Nor  were  his  energies  and 
efforts  confined  to  the  assistance  and  amelioration 
of  those  who  with  himself  had  been  cast  down  in 
the  wreck  of  a  great  struggle.  He  turned  himself 
in  helpful  sympathy  to  the  ignorant  and  humble 
race,   out  of  whose  seeming  triumph  came  to  be 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE  201 

wrought  an  Ilium  of  woes;  and  whose  new-found 
friends  had  laid  upon  unprepared  shoulders  a  double 
burden  of  freedom  and  of  enfranchisement.  With 
the  tenderness  and  affection  for  the  black  man  which 
the  typical  Southern  slaveholder  preserved  to  the 
end,  and  which  the  typical  Southern  slave  rewarded 
with  a  fidelity  and  devotion  that"  is  unparalleled  in 
the  history  of  the  world, — a  tenderness  which  the 
alien  will  never  comprehend,  and  a  devotion  which 
will  never  cease  to  astonish  the  outsider, — Curry 
was,  from  the  moment  of  the  fall  of  the  Confederacy, 
occupied  in  mind  and  heart  with  the  probable  future 
of  these  people.  On  May  15th,  1866,  he  held  a  con- 
ference at  Marion  with  Messrs.  Mcintosh  and 
Raymond,  the  pastors  of  the  local  Baptist  and 
Presbyterian  Churches,  with  reference  to  the  educa- 
tion of  the  freedmen  of  the  town.  They  agreed 
upon  a  town-meeting,  to  be  held  on  the  17th  of  the 
month;  and  on  that  day  a  preliminary  gathering 
took  place,  whose  object  was  to  devise  ways  and 
means  towards  this  desired  end. '  Shortly  afterwards, 
another  meeting  was  held,  at  which  Curry,  supported 
by  the  two  ministers  already  mentioned,  and  by 
ex-Governor  Andrew  B.  Moore,  prepared  and  intro- 
duced resolutions  favoring  the  education  of  the 
colored  people  by  the  white  people  of  the  South.  It 
was  a  wise  and  prescient  act  upon  his  part;  and  in 
dealing  with  the  proposition  he  took  an  advanced 
position  beyond  that  of  most  of  his  Southern  con- 
temporaries, many  of  whom  were  paralyzed  with 
fear  and  wonder  at  the  sudden  injection  of  a  great 
mass  of  ignorance  ''into  the  belly  of  the  constitu- 
tion." But  Curry  met  the  exigency  of  the  situation 
with  the  judgment,  the  courage,  the  faith  and  the 


202      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

energy  that  had  characterized    his    earUer  career; 
and  for  it,  in  the  end,  he  received  his  rich  reward. 

In  this  year  of  1866,  he  began  to  keep  regularly 
a  record  or  diary;  and  the  little  leather-bound 
pocket-books  contain  many  entries  that  bring  the 
past  days  of  a  notable  but  disjointed  and  despairing 
period  and  a  noble  career  vividly  before  the  reader's 
eyes.  Among  many  other  details  of  this  critical 
year  after  the  war,  when  despair  and  hope  alter- 
nately swayed  the  Southern  balances,  we  find  him 
writing  cheerfully  and  without  repining.  Not  a  few 
of  these  entries  are  quite  insignificant,  alone  and 
in  themselves;  but  they  go  together  to  show  the 
equal  temper  of  his  heart  and  mind,  his  quick  in- 
terest in  the  life  about  him,  his  zest  for  work,  and 
may  thus  serve  to  illustrate  his  character  and  con- 
duct:— 

Saturday,  February  3  (Entry  made  at  Meridian,  Miss.) 
Carpet-sack  taken  from  me  by  mistake,  with  clothes  and 
all  my  sermons.    Left  for  Mobile  at  5  p.  m. 

Tuesday,  February  6.     Called  on  Miss  Augusta  Evans. 

Saturday,  February  10.  Called  with  Miss  Augusta  Evans 
on  Mrs.  Chandron,  who  translated  Joseph  II, — a  most 
accomplished  and  pleasant  woman. 

Monday,  February  12.  Spent  Monday  night  at  Mr. 
Evans', — the  father  of  Miss  Augusta  J.  Evans,  author  of 
Inez,  Beulah,  Macaria  and  St.  Elmo. 

Saturday,  March  31.  Took  tea  at  General  Lawler's 
with  General  Willis  Bocock  and  Prof.  A.  J.  Battle. 

Tuesday,  April  3.  At  3.30  p.  m.  delivered  a  "little" 
lecture  to  the  students  of  Howard. 

Wednesday,  April  11.  (Entry  made  at  Tuskegee,  Ala.) 
Dined  with  Mr.  McDonald.  Met  Mrs.  Covington  {nee 
Miss  Bussy),  who  knew  my  father  and  mother  before 
marriage,  and  my  grandfather  and  mother,  and  great- 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE  203 

grandmother,  who  would  never  ride,  but  was  a  great 
pedestrian.  My  mother,  when  a  girl,  was  cheerful  and 
lively. 

Monday,  May  14.  Informed  of  a  contemplated  duel, 
and  mediation  requested. 

Wednesday,  May  16.  Officiated  for  the  first  time  in 
marrying  a  couple,  Marion  M.  Burch  of  Kentucky  and 
Ella  L.  Curry.    Spent  the  night  at  Jabez  Curry's. 

Monday,  May  21.  Left  Marion  at  6  a.  m.  Reached 
Selma  at  9.20  a.  m.  Preached  at  night  and  baptized  two 
young  boys.  This  was  my  first  administration  of  the 
ordinance. 

Friday,  June  1.  Duel  between  M.  P.  Kennon  and 
Capt.  Frank  Lumpkin.  Two  shots.  No  damage.  Ad- 
justment. 

Friday,  August  31.  Invitation  to  Presidency  of  Rich- 
mond College. 

Wednesday,  September  12.  Reached  Montgomery  at 
9  A.  M.  Called  with  Judge  Chilton,  at  12  m.,  on  Governor 
Patton,  just  returned  from  Chicago, — the  "inauguration" 
of  the  Douglas  monument.  The  Governor  hopeful  as  to 
political  affairs;   Chief  Justice  Walker  despondent. 

Tuesday,  October  9.  Commenced  teaching  in  College. 
Recitations  in  Moral  and  Intellectual  Philosophy  and 
Rhetoric. 

Sunday,  November  18.  (Entry  made  in  Richmond.) 
Preached  at  Second  Baptist  Church  at  11  a.  m. 

Assisted  in  communion  service  at  First  Baptist  Church 
at  4  p.  M.,  and  talked  to  converts. 

Dr.  Steel  and  Messrs.  Farrer,  Courtney  and  Ellyson,  a 
committee  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church,  waited  on  me 
with  a  request  to  accept  pastorate. 

Preached  at  night  in  First  Baptist  Church  to  a  large 
congregation.  Drs.  Stiles,  Ryland  and  Burrows  on  the 
stand. 

A  busy  day,  surely! 


204      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

More  than  ten  years  later  Curry  wrote  again, 
under  date  of  that  same  full  day,  in  one  of  the  little 
brown  leather-backed  diaries: — 

On  the  18th  of  November,  happy  day,  I  was  accepted 
by  Mary  W.  Thomas.  I  have  had  occasion,  every  day 
since,  to  thank  God  for  this  great  goodness.  I  can  recall 
the  very  spot  where  my  proposal  was  acceded  to. 

On  Tuesday,  January  8,  1867,  he  made  the  follow- 
ing entry  in  his  diary : — 

Weighed  to-day  157  pounds; — more  than  I  ever  weighed 
before. 

On  28th  February,  1867,  in  his  official  capacity  of 
President  of  Howard  College,  he  entered  into  cor- 
respondence with  Mr.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  with 
reference  to  the  Peabody  donation,  a  gift  of  three 
millions  of  dollars  by  which  Mr.  George  Peabody  of 
Massachusetts  established  what  became  known  as 
the  Peabody  Education  Fund.  This  correspondence 
was  the  beginning  of  a  later  very  close  personal  and 
official  relationship  between  the  two  men,  the  details 
of  which  are  to  be  found  in  subsequent  chapters  of 
this  narrative. 

In  March  of  this  year  he  was  instructed  by  the 
trustees  of  his  college,  who  armed  him  at  the  same 
time  with  a  resolution  of  their  confidence,  to  visit 
Virginia  and  Baltimore,  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
some  part,  if  possible,  of  the  Peabody  Fund  for 
their  own  institution.  Accordingly  he  set  out  for 
Richmond  about  the  middle  of  the  month,  spending 
some  days  on  the  way,  and  remaining  in  Virginia 
only  a  short  time.  He  appears  to  have  been  sick 
during  a  portion  of  this  trip;   and  he  did  not  reach 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE  205 

Baltimore  as  he  had  contemplated.  At  the  end  of 
the  first  week  in  April  he  was  again  at  Marion;  and 
there  is  no  record  in  his  journals  and  notes  of  any 
fruitful  results  of  the  journey. 

On  June  17,  1867,  he  set  out  for  another  trip  to 
Virginia,  which  had  in  view  a  different  object  than 
procuring  aid  for  Howard  College  from  the  Peabody 
Fund.  He  travelled  tranquilly,  as  one  with  a  serene 
and  untroubled  mind,  who  having  earned  some  days 
of  leisure,  proposed  to  enjoy  them.  He  stopped  at 
various  places  on  his  way  northward.  Among  others, 
he  was  at  Charlottesville  on  the  21st. 

"I  visited  the  University  in  the  afternoon,"  he 
wrote  in  his  diary;  in  which  he  always  alludes  to 
Jefferson's  great  educational  institution  at  Char- 
lottesville as  ''the  University,"  apparently  taking 
it  for  granted,  as  did  most  Southerners,  and  all  Vir- 
ginians, that  there  could  be  no  difficulty  in  recog- 
nizing its  identity.  While  in  Charlottesville  he 
visited  the  grave  of  Jefferson,  in  the  graveyard  on 
the  mountain  side;  and  Monticello,  where  the  ''sen- 
tinel over  the  rights  of  men"  had  spent  his  last 
years  in  his  home  upon  the  summit  of  the  Little 
Mountain. 

On  the  next  day  after  his  visit  to  Jefferson's 
house  and  burial-place,  he  reached  Richmond. 

The  entries  in  the  little  brown-backed  books  had 
during  the  preceding  months  contained  frequent 
mention  of  "M.  W.  T.",  and  of  a  correspondence  in 
which  the  owner  of  those  initials  was  a  participant; 
and  on  the  18th  of  the  preceding  November, — 
"happy  day!" — it  showed  the  record  of  his  engage- 
ment. So  that  the  reader,  who  has  followed  these 
pages,  may  reasonably  have  surmised  ere  this,  that 


206      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Curry  was  visiting  Richmond  to  be  present  at  his 
own  wedding. 

On  June  25,  1867,  he  and  Miss  Mary  W. 
Thomas  were  married.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Mr.  James  Thomas,  a  prominent  business  man  of 
Richmond,  whom  Curry,  when  a  Confederate  Con- 
gressman, had  met,  as  he  records,  with  her  parents 
and  numerous  sisters,  under  a  tree  on  the  lawn  of 
Mr.  Thomas'  residence,  upon  a  certain  summer's 
day,  when  she  was  "a,  sweet,  beautiful  girl  of  seven- 
teen." The  marriage  ceremony  was  performed  at 
8.30  P.M.,  as  he  punctiliously  relates,  in  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  with  Rev.  William  D.  Thomas  and 
Dr.  J.  L.  Burrows  officiating.  A  large  and  brilliant 
assemblage  witnessed  the  solemn  ceremony;  and 
the  bridegroom  writes  that  besides  the  officiating 
ministers,  there  were  present  on  the  platform,  as 
interested  spectators,  Doctors  Jeter,  Ryland,  T.  G. 
Jones  and  Shaver,  and  Reverend  Messrs.  Grimsby, 
Hume,  and  Morgan  of  England. 

"From  that  day,"  says  Curry  in  1877,  "our  lives  have 
flowed  happily  together,  like  two  streams  whose  waters 
are  indissolubly  blended.  Not  a  harsh  word  has  ever 
passed  the  lips  of  either,  nor  an  unkind  thought  been 
harbored  for  a  moment  in  either  heart.  Now,  after  ten 
years  of  union,  I  can  bless  God  for  such  a  gift,  and  truly 
say  that  earth  contains  not  a  wiser,  purer,  nobler,  better 


woman." 


Surely  no  wife  ever  won  a  finer  tribute  than  that! 

An  hour  or  two  after  their  marriage  Curry  and  his 
wife  left  Richmond  for  New  York;  and  thence,  on 
Saturday,  June  29,  they  set  sail  for  Europe.  In  the 
party  were  William  D.  Thomas,  Dr.  J.  M.  Williams 
of  Baltimore,  Professor  Huntingdon,  Rev.  Thomas 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE  207 

Hume,  Jr.,  of  Portsmouth,  Dr.  G.  W.  Samson  and 
his  family,  and  Messrs.  Wheeler,  Johnson  and  Farn- 
ham,  all  of  whom  appear  to  have  been  friends  or 
acquaintances  of  Curry's,  and  whose  presence  he 
notes  in  his  diary. 

Their  trip  abroad,  which  was  not  so  common  an 
experience  as  it  is  to-day,  covered  a  period  of  four 
months,  and  included  England,  Scotland,  Belgium, 
Germany,  Switzerland,  Italy  and  France. 

On  July  13,  runs  the  diary,  they  were  at  "West- 
minster Palace,  Westminster  Abbey,  and  the  British 
Museum ;  on  the  next  day,  Sunday,  they  heard  with 
interest  a  sermon  from  Spurgeon.  In  Italy,  on  the 
24th,  they  visited  Pompeii,  and  climbed  Vesuvius; 
at  Florence,  on  August  1,  they  traversed  the  galleries 
of  the  Uffizi  and  Pitti  palaces,  and  dwelt  with  unac- 
customed eyes  upon  the  glories  of  an  ancient  and 
unexcelled  art;  and  there  they  visited  the  American 
sculptor,  Hiram  Powers,  in  his  studio.  On  August 
23,  still  following  the  now  beaten  track  of  the  later 
tourist,  they  returned  to  Paris,  where  they  remained 
until  October  5,  in  attendance  upon  the  Exposition 
and  visiting  the  various  places  in  its  vicinity  of  his- 
torical or  artistic  interest.  Here,  in  Paris,  after  a 
lapse  of  years,  Curry  makes  record  that  he  heard 
Patti  sing  again,  with  a  charm  that  had  lost  nothing 
of  its  delight  since  he  had  heard  her,  ten  years  ear- 
lier, in  Washington.  Setting  their  faces  homeward, 
by  way  of  England,  the  Currys  once  more  heard 
Spurgeon  in  his  great  London  Tabernacle;  and  had 
the  pleasure  of  making  his  personal  acquaintance. 

The  travellers  reached  New  York  October  28, 
whence  they  went  straight  to  Richmond,  where  they 
tarried  only  a  few  days,  and  arrived  at  Marion  early 


208      J.  L.  M.  CURKY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

in  November,  The  next  month  he  attended  the 
State  Baptist  Convention  at  Mobile,  and  was  again 
and  for  the  third  time  elected  its  President. 

His  ''love  of  preaching"  meanwhile  continued  a 
potent  influence  with  him.  Indeed,  "  love  of  preach- 
ing" but  mildly  expresses  the  deepest  impulse  of 
the  man's  nature,  which  was  to  teach  and  move  his 
fellows.  During  1867,  in  spite  of  his  wanderings  and 
various  distractions,  he  preached  forty  sermons, — one 
of  which  was  in  Paris,  and  another  in  Edinburgh; 
and  delivered  forty-two  addresses  and  lectures. 

On  July  10,  while  he  was  off  the  coast  of  Ireland, 
in  his  trip  abroad,  he  was  honored  with  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Laws  by  Mercer  University,  Georgia, 
of  which  he  made  record  in  his  notes,  with  many 
exclamation  points.  , 

Mercer  University,  Georgia,  conferred  on  me,  to-day, 
the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws!!!! 

The  later  months  of  1867  and  the  earUer  ones  of 
1868  were  busily  occupied  by  Curry,  who  in  addi- 
tion to  the  duties  of  his  collegiate  office,  was  engaged 
in  travelling  here  and  there,  and  preaching  and 
making  addresses  before  religious  and  educational 
gatherings.  At  Talladega,  on  January  13,  yielding 
to  the  earnest  persuasion  of  his  old  friends  and  for- 
mer constituents,  he  made  a  speech  in  opposition  to 
the  adoption  of  the  Reconstruction  State  Constitu- 
tion. The  constitution  was  legally  defeated  by  the 
terms  of  the  Congressional  enabling  act,  which 
required  that  a  majority  of  the  registered  vote 
should  be  cast;  but  the  Congress,  with  ruthless 
disregard  of  its  own  act,  admitted  Alabama  into 
the  Union  under  an  unadopted  reconstruction  con- 


PEACE   AND    SERVICE  209 

stitution;  and  with  it,  put  in  authority  a  State 
government,  of  whom  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
Applegate  of  Ohio,  the  Secretary  of  State,  Miller 
of  Maine,  the  Auditor,  Reynolds  of  Maine,  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Revenue,  Keiffer  of  Ohio,  were  all 
officials  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau.  In  the  county, 
in  which  the  State  capitol  was  located,  the  Recon- 
structionists  nominated  a  ticket,  which  was  a  fair 
example  of  others  in  counties  where  the  Freedman's 
Bureau  most  flourished.  Their  candidates  for  the 
legislature  were  a  citizen  of  Ohio,  an  Austrian,  and 
three  negroes;  and  those  for  the  county  offices  of 
Probate  Judge,  Clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court  and 
Sheriff  were  all  Northerners. 

Curry  wrote  of  his  speech  against  the  Black  and 
Tan  Constitution  of  Alabama,  in  1877,  that  it  was 
'Hhe  only  political  speech  he  had  made  since  the 
War";  but  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  get  away 
from  the  ocean  of  political  degradation  and  misrule 
that  surrounded  hun,  whose  current  of  iniquity  he 
was  powerless  to  stem.  On  April  21,  1868,  within 
three  months  after  the  election,  Curry  resigned  the 
Presidency  of  Howard  College.  On  the  27th,  at  the 
urgent  request  of  several  of  his  friends,  he  withdrew 
his  resignation,  provisionally;  but,  in  fact,  he  never 
acted  in  an  official  capacity  for  the  institution  after- 
wards. An  unusual  sense  of  profound  dishearten- 
ment  seems  to  have  come  upon  him  in  the  contem- 
plation of  his  surroundings.  For  once  his  buoyant 
spirit  lacked  resiliency.  ''The  country  was  too 
bankrupt,"  he  wrote,  ''and  the  political  outlook  too 
discouraging,  to  make  a  continuance  of  efforts  for 
endowment  desirable." 

Long  after  his  State  had  resumed  her  position  of 


210      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

honor  and  dignity  in  the  galaxy  of  Commonwealths 
under  the  rule  of  her  own  people,  and  when  her  coal 
and  iron  had  made  her  a  center  of  interest  to  the 
industrial  world,  Curry  made  final  record  in  1901  of 
his  reasons  for  leaving  Alabama: — 

No.  man  ever  had  truer  or  more  devoted  friends  than 
honored  me  with  their  confidence  in  Alabama,  and  it  was 
with  deep  reluctance  that  I  turned  my  face  away  from 
the  State  of  my  boyhood  and  manhood,  which  still  holds 
my  paramount  affection.  It  seemed  unwise  to  keep  my 
wife  and  children  under  radical  misrule,  and  to  remain 
where  a  generation  or  more  would  be  needed  to  recover 
from  the  disastrous  consequences  of  the  War  and  hostile 
legislation. 

It  is  manifest  that  a  sharp  conflict  arose  in  his 
mind  between  his  duty  to  his  region,  which  he  had 
served  so  faithfully  and  which  had  trusted  him  so 
completely,  and  his  duty  to  his  young  wife  who  had 
joined  her  fortunes  to  his. 

The  claims  of  wife  and  children  prevailed. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

IN   THE    OLD   DOMINION 

It  will  be  recalled  that  in  1866  Curry  had  been 
offered  the  presidency  of  Richmond  College, — an 
honor  which  was  declined  at  the  time  of  its  tender. 
But,  when  upon  his  return  from  Europe  in  October, 
1867,  he  was  notified  of  his  appointment  to  the  chair 
of  History  and  English  Literature  in  the  same  insti- 
tution, he  appears  to  have  regarded  the  proposi- 
tion with  a  more  favorable  consideration.  Yet  it  is 
scarcely  probable  that  this  invitation  was  in  any 
large  sense  a  determining  factor  in  his  removal  from 
Alabama,  where  he  had  resided  for  thirty  years. 
The  social  and  political  conditions  of  reconstruc- 
tion, which  Virginia  had  so  far  escaped,  and  family 
considerations  were  the  compelling  motives,  as  he 
has  himself  recorded,  which  finally  induced  his  de- 
termination to  leave  his  former  home. 

With  his  family,  he  reached  Richmond,  which 
thenceforward  became  his  residence,  on  the  3rd  of 
May,  1868;  and  leaving  his  son  and  daughter  there 
at  the  house  of  his  father-in-law,  Mr.  Thomas,  he 
went  with  Mrs.  Curry  to  Baltimore,  to  attend  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention,  which  was  to  meet 
in  that  city  on  the  7th.  According  to  previous 
arrangement  he  was  to  preach  the  introductory 
sermon  before  the  Convention;  but  this  plan  was 
prevented  by  a  singular  accident.     As  they  were 

211 


212      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

approaching  Baltimore,  at  a  point  six  miles  from 
the  city,  between  it  and  the  Relay  House,  Mrs. 
Curry,  who  was  seated  by  her  husband's  side  in 
the  carriage,  was  struck  on  the  head  by  a  stone, 
weighing  some  four  pounds,  which  was  hurled  at 
the  occupants  of  the  vehicle  by  some  undiscovered 
ruffian;  and  her  skull  was  fractured. 

"At  first,"  writes  Curry,  "I  thought  that  she  had  been 
shot  with  a  pistol;  and  did  not  learn  the  extent  of  the 
injury  until,  on  arriving  at  the  Eutaw  House,  Dr.  R.  N. 
Smith,  the  eminent  surgeon,  came  out  and  informed  me. 
She  did  not  recover  consciousness  until  the  9th.  We  had 
the  sympathy  and  proffers  of  service  from  hosts  of 
friends." 

No  clue  to  the  perpetrator  of  this  outrage,  nor 
motive  for  its  commission  was  ever  discovered;  but 
it  had  the  effect  of  disarranging  all  of  Curry's  plans; 
and  it  was  not  until  the  9th  of  the  month,  two  days 
after  the  Convention  had  assembled,  that  he  ap- 
peared before  it,  and  made  an  address  in  behalf  of 
the  Greenville  Theological  Seminary.  His  recent 
experiences  in  Alabama  had  profoundly  impressed 
him  with  the  need  of  providing  religious  instruction 
for  the  newly-emancipated  slaves;  and  we  find  him 
soon  after  his  visit  to  Baltimore,  and  the  accident 
to  Mrs.  Curry,  addressing  a  mass-meeting  of  Bap- 
tists in  Richmond,  and  urging  upon  his  auditors  the 
importance  of  the  Southern  people  putting  forth 
more  vigorous  efforts  for  giving  the  negroes  a  proper 
religious  education.  In  the  meantime  he  was  still 
''preaching," — filling,  as  opportunity  offered  or  occa- 
sion demanded,  the  various  pulpits  of  Drs.  Fuller, 
Williams,  and  Hatcher.  The  astounding  readiness 
with  which,  without  technical  preparation,  he  was 


'      IN   THE    OLD   DOMINION  213 

able  to  "preach"  to  the  delight  of  great  critical 
audiences  in  the  big  cities  proves  again  the  conten- 
tion that  the  man's  overmastering  impulse  was 
didactic.  He  had  to  preach  —  from  some  sort  of 
rostrum. 

His  summer  of  this  year  was  more  or  less  unevent- 
ful. In  June  he  was  in  New  York  City,  preaching  in 
the  Madison  Avenue  Church,  and  receiving  and  con- 
sidering certain  tentative  propositions,  looking  to  his 
acceptance  of  its  pastorate,  as  the  successor  of  Dr. 
H.  G.  Weston,  who  had  been  called  to  the  Presidency 
of  Crozer  Theological  Seminary.  Later  he  attended 
sundry  association  meetings;  and  on  the  13th  of  July, 
1868,  he  signified  at  last  his  formal  acceptance  of  a 
professorship  in  Richmond  College. 

For  a  number  of  successive  summers  after  the 
close  of  the  War  between  the  States,  the  Greenbrier 
Wnite  Sulphur  Springs  was  the  rendezvous  of  many 
men  and  women  who  had  been  conspicuous  for  their 
devotion  and  services  to  the  Confederacy;  and,  in  the 
simple  surroundings  of  the  place,  the  most  refined 
and  gracious  and  intelligent  society  of  what  was  left 
of  the  old  South,  was  accustomed  to  gather  for  a 
brief  and  unostentatious  annual  recreation.  Thither 
Curry  went  in  the  latter  part  of  August,  and  spent  a 
week;  and  among  his  former  associates,  acquaint- 
ances and  friends,  found  there  Commodore  Matthew 
F.  Maury,  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  General  P.  G.  T. 
Beauregard,  General  John  Echols,  Governor  Pickens 
of  South  Carolina,  Governor  Letcher  of  Virginia,  Sen- 
ator Allen  T.  Caperton,  Mr.  Alexander  H.  H.  Stuart, 
and  Mr.  Alexander  H.  Stephens.  With  the  tremen- 
dous tragedy  of  the  War  immediately  behind  them, 
it  may  be  well  imagined  that  these  illustrious  partici- 


214      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

pants  in  its  tremendous  endeavors  and  failures, 
found  much  to  recall  of  the  past,  and  no  less  to  hope 
and  plan  for  in  the  future.  One  wishes  that  such  a 
vivid  talker  and  keen  observer  as  Curry  had  handed 
down  to  us  some  transcript  of  the  talk  of  this  unusual 
company.  They  had  been  actors  in  a  great  tragic 
enterprise  and  had  failed,  but  they  were  not  broken 
soldiers  of  fortune  or  disappointed  adventurers.  In- 
deed they  came  nearer  to  being  martyrs  than  adven- 
turers— martyrs  to  idealism  and  to  love  of  home  and 
locality;  or  else  unworldly  champions  of  an  idea 
which  seemed  to  them  finer  than  life.  Millions  of 
silent,  proud  people  still  loved  and  trusted  them. 
They  were  beginning  life  over  again  with  erect  heads, 
and  most  of  them,  as  poorly  paid  public  servants  in 
the  fields  of  education  or  industry. 

The  great  dining  hall  of  the  famous  hotel  was  filled 
one  evening  when  a  gentleman  in  gray  clothes  entered 
with  a  friend  and  was  proceeding  modestly  to  a  seat. 
Suddenly  some  one  silently  rose  as  he  passed,  and,  as 
if  by  magic,  the  whole  company  rose  without  noisy 
acclaim,  for  they  had  recognized  the  face  and  figure 
of  Lee,  and  spontaneously  their  hearts  had  taught 
them  to  act  as  loyal  subjects  do  when  the  king  passes 
by.  That  pure  and  lofty  face  was  known  to  them  all. 
Some  had  seen  it  in  the  glare  of  battle.  Women  and 
children  knew  it  as  a  symbol  of  the  highest  for  which 
they  had  suffered.  It  was  such  a  scene  as  could  only 
happen  to  people  who  had  known  great  sorrow  but 
had  kept  unsullied  a  standard  of  human  virtue,  and 
thus  touchingly  did  homage  to  goodness  worn  so 
simply  and  yet  so  fair  to  behold  in  the  noble  presence 
of  their  great  leader. 

During  the  month  of  September,  1868,  with  his 


IN   THE    OLD   DOMINION  215 

daughter,  Susie,  and  several  friends,  he  made  an 
extensive  trip  through  the  West,  going  as  far  as  Fort 
Hayes,  where  they  were  stopped  in  their  further 
journey  by  the  depredations  and  incursions  of  hos- 
tile Indians.  The  return  journey  to  Richmond  was 
made  in  time  to  permit  Curry  to  begin  his  new  duties 
as  a  Professor  of  Richmond  College  on  Thursday, 
October  1.  Into  this  work  he  entered  with  his  accus- 
tomed energy,  and  the  enthusiasm  without  which 
men  do  not  accomplish  the  great  things  of  life;  and 
here  for  ten  years  he  labored  with  the  assiduity,  the 
intelligence  and  the  well-directed  effort,  which  justi- 
fied a  later  verdict  from  the  public  of  noble  and  fruit- 
ful accomplishment.  Of  this  experience  he  wrote  at 
a  subsequent  day: — 

I  have  since  acted  as  Associate  Professor  of  Law,  and 
am  now  filling  the  Chair  of  Philosophy.  My  association 
with  the  College  has  been  very  pleasant.  I  am  much 
attached  to  the  students,  and  they  apparently  to  me. 
My  rule  is  to  treat  them  as  gentlemen,  and  to  have  them 
regard  me  not  as  a  hard  taskmaster,  but  as  a  sympathiz- 
ing friend. 

In  the  meantime  the  ''calls"  and  invitations  that 
came  up  to  him  from  many  places  and  directions  to 
pastorships  which  he  persistently  decHned,  attest  his 
continued  popularity  and  esteem  among  the  people 
of  his  denomination;  while  his  professional  duties  did 
not  prevent  a  frequent  indulgence  by  him  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  oratorical  gifts  in  the  pulpit  and  upon 
secular  occasions.  He  records  that  during  this  year 
he  preached  sixty  sermons,  delivered  seventy  public 
addresses,  and  wrote  a  chapter  of  "Recollections" 
for  Mr.  Samuel  Boy  kin's  biography  of  Governor 
Howell  Cobb. 


216      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

During  December,  1868,  the  final  act  of  a  notable 
drama,  growing  out  of  the  War  between  the  States, 
was  witnessed  by  Curry.  In  May,  1866,  an  indict- 
ment had  been  found  against  Mr.  Davis,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Confederate  States,  then  a  prisoner  at 
Fortress  Monroe,  by  the  grand  jury  of  the  Circuit 
Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  District  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  Charles  0' Conor  had  written  a  letter  to 
the  distinguished  prisoner,  proffering  his  professional 
services  in  his  defence,  which  offer  had  been  accepted. 
At  the  May  term,  1867,  after  repeated  and  unavailing 
efforts  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Davis'  counsel,  consisting 
of  Messrs.  Charles  O'Conor,  the  acknowledged  leader 
of  the  bar  in  the  United  States,  William  B.  Peed  of 
Philadelphia  and  John  Randolph  Tucker  of  Virginia, 
George  Shea  of  New  York,  Robert  Ould  and  James 
Lyons  of  Virginia,  to  obtain  a  trial  or  bail  for  the 
prisoner,  the  case  was  called  for  hearing  on  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  before  Judge  Underwood.  Attorney 
General  Evarts,  and  District  Attorney  Chandler  ap- 
peared for  the  government;  and  Mr.  Davis  was  re- 
leased upon  a  bail  bond  of  One  Hundred  Thousand 
Dollars,  with  Horace  Greeley  of  New  York  the  first 
surety  thereon. 

On  the  26th  of  March,  1868,  a  new  indictment  had 
been  found  against  the  former  President  of  the  Con- 
federacy, charging  him  in  a  number  of  counts,  and 
in  the  involved  phraseology  of  the  law,  with  various 
acts  of  treason,  notable  among  which  was  that  of 
''conspiring  with  Robert  E.  Lee,  J.  P.  Benjamin, 
John  C.  Breckinridge,  William  Mahone,  H.  A.  Wise, 
John  Letcher,  William  Smith,  Jubal  A.  Early,  James 
Longstreet,  Wilham  H.  Payne,  D.  H.  Hill,  A.  P.  Hill, 
P.  G.  T.  Beauregard,  W.  H.  C.  Whiting,  Ed.  Sparrow, 


IN   THE    OLD   DOMINION  217 

Samuel  Cooper,  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  J.  B.  Gordon, 
C.  F.  Jackson,  F.  0.  Moore,  and  with  other  persons 
whose  names  are  to  the  grand  jury  unknown,"  "to 
make  war  against  the  United  States,"  and  with  doing 
various  other  things,  all  of  which  things  were  al- 
leged to  have  been  done  ''traitorously,  unlawfully, 
mahciously  and  wickedly." 

On  the  finding  of  this  indictment,  the  trial  was 
continued  from  time  to  time  until  the  fourth  Monday 
in  November,  when  it  was  arranged  that  Chief 
Justice  Chase  should  be  present.  This  date  was 
later  changed  to  December  3,  1868;  and  on  that 
day  the  Chief  Justice  sat  with  Judge  Underwood  to 
hear  a  motion  to  quash  the  indictment.  On  this 
occasion,  Messrs.  0' Conor,  Ould,  Read  and  Lyons 
of  Mr.  Davis'  counsel  appeared;  and  the  govern- 
ment was  represented  by  the  newly  appointed  dis- 
trict attorney,  Mr.  Beach,  and  by  Mr.  Richard  H. 
Dana,  Jr.,  of  Boston,  and  Mr.  H.  H.  Wells,  the  for- 
mer military  Governor  of  Virginia,  when  it  was 
''District  Number  One."  Mr.  Ould  opened  for  the 
defense  on  the  motion  to  quash,  and  Messrs.  Beach, 
Wells  and  Dana  replied.  Mr.  0' Conor  concluded 
the  case  for  Mr.  Davis  on  the  4th;  and  the  Chief 
Justice  and  Judge  Underwood  disagreed,  and  the 
case  was  continued  until  May,  1869.  On  the  15th 
day  of  February,  1869,  the  following  order  was 
entered  in  the  Federal  Circuit  Court  at  Richmond : — 

Monday,  February  15,  1869. 
United  States 

vs.         Upon  Indictment  for  Treason. 
Thomas  P.  Turner,  William  Smith,  Wade  Hampton,  Ben- 
jamin Huger,  Henry  A.  Wise,  Samuel  Cooper,  G.  W.  C. 
Lee,  W.  H.  F.  Lee,  Charles  Mallory,  William  Mahone, 


218      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

O.  F.  Baxter,  Robert  E.  Lee,  James  Longstreet,  William 
E.  Taylor,  Fitzhugh  Lee,  George  W.  Alexander,  Robert 
H.  Booker,  John  DeBree,  M.  D.  Corse,  Eppa  Hunton, 
Roger  A.  Pryor,  D.  B.  Bridgford,  Jubal  A.  Early,  R.  S. 
Ewell,  William  S.  Winder,  George  Booker,  Cornelius 
Bayles,  William  H.  Payne,  R.  S.  Andrews,  C.  J.  Faulkner, 
and  R.  H.  Dulaney,  W.  N.  McVeigh,  H.  B.  Taylor,  James 
A.  Seddon,  W.  B.  Richards,  Jr.,  J.  C.  Breckinridge  and 
Jefferson  Davis. 

(Two  cases.) 
The  District  Attorney,  by  leave  of  the  Court,  saith 
that  he  will  not  prosecute  further  on  behalf  of  the  United 
States  against  the  above  named  parties  upon  separate 
indictments  for  treason.  It  is,  therefore,  ordered  by  the 
Court  that  the  prosecutions  aforesaid  be  dismissed. 

The  motion  to  quash  having  failed  in  the  dis- 
agreement of  the  Chief  Justice  and  of  Judge  Under- 
wood, the  fact  of  the  disagreement  was  certified  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  where  the 
case  was  never  called;  and  thus  concluded  the  pros- 
ecution for  treason,  against  Mr.  Davis  and  his  as- 
sociates. 

Curry  makes  record  of  the  historic  event  and  of 
the  argument  of  this  motion  on  the  4th  of  December, 
1868:— 

At  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States,  Chase,  Chief 
Justice,  presiding,  a  motion  to  quash  the  indictment 
against  Jefferson  Davis  was  argued.  I  heard  an  able 
argument  from  Charles  O' Conor,  one  of  Mr.  Davis' 
counsel.  Hon.  Wm.  B.  Reed  of  Philadelphia  was  asso- 
ciate counsel.  I  called  to  see  him,  and  had  a  pleasant 
interview.  He  was  a  brother  of  Henry  Reed,  the  author, 
and  himself  was  a  graceful  and  scholarly  writer.  Our 
acquaintance  began  by  a  letter  he  wrote  to  me,  compli- 
menting a  speech  in  1859  on  the  Speaker's  election. 


IN   THE    OLD   DOMINION  219 

This  cold  and  almost  colorless  allusion  to  an  event 
which  deeply  moved  the  hearts  of  the  Southern 
people,  written  by  one  of  the  most  ardent  advocates 
of  the  right  of  Secession  and  of  State  sovereignty, 
the  recognition  or  condemnation  of  which  doctrines 
at  the  hands  of  the  law  lay  in  the  determination  of 
this  case,  serves  to  illustrate  the  cool  temper  of 
Curry's  mind  and  how  quickly  he  had  begun  to 
put  into  practice  his  precept  to  his  son:  "Let  us 
live  in  the  present  and  for  the  future,  leaving  the 
dead  past  to  take  care  of  itself."  Though  there  is 
nowhere  in  his  voluminous  writings  to  be  found  any 
recantation  of  the  settled  and  fixed  convictions  and 
principles  of  his  political  philosophy,  when  the  arbitra- 
ment of  the  sword  had  once  made  final  disposition  of 
secession  and  of  the  Calhoun  idea,  he  did  not  continue 
to  dwell  upon  his  ancient  and  unsurrendered  faith; 
but  turned  his  face  steadily  to  those  newer  and  more 
hopeful  aspects,  which  the  later  dispensation  prom- 
ised. In  this  respect  it  may  be  noted  here,  that  he 
followed  the  illustrious  example,  in  act  and  precept, 
of  his  great  commander.  General  Lee,  whose  post- 
helium  career  was  characterized  by  no  repining  or 
bitterness,  and  by  such  cheerful  acceptance  of  con- 
ditions as  his  courage  and  faith  might  afford. 

During  the  year  1869,  Curry  continued  to  keep 
busy  with  his  collegiate  duties,  his  lectures  and  his 
sermons,  delivering  among  others  two  lectures  in 
Washington  College,  at  Lexington,  Virginia,  on 
''Language  and  Character,"  before  cultured  and 
appreciative  audiences  that  included  in  their  number 
the  great  president  of  the  institution,  General  Robert 
E.  Lee. 

During  this  session  the  Trustees  of  Richmond 


220      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

College  determined  to  abandon  the  governmental 
system  of  the  college,  which  included  a  President, 
in  favor  of  the  more  democratic  scheme  of  making 
the  professors  of  the  various  schools  under  the  title 
of  chairmen  administrative  heads  of  the  college. 
In  this  change  they  pursued  the  plan  of  govern- 
ment that  had  been  devised  by  Mr.  Jefferson  for 
the  University  of  Virginia,  where  it  had  been  fol- 
lowed with  success  since  the  foundation  of  that  in- 
stitution. Of  the  two  great  features  of  the  higher 
education  in  collegiate  and  university  administration 
and  instruction,  both  of  which  Jefferson  emphasized 
in  his  foundation  of  his  University,  that  of  the  elect- 
ive system  of  studies  has  since  his  time  steadily 
grown  and  prevailed,  in  more  or  less  modified  form, 
until  it  has  become  a  conspicuous  and  accustomed 
feature  of  university  and  college  life  in  America; 
while  the  other,  namely,  of  choosing  a  Chairman  of 
the  Faculty  from  the  professors  in  rotation  as  the 
temporary  head  of  the  institution,  has  been  tried  in 
various  southern  institutions,  as  Curry  records  its 
trial  in  1869  at  Richmond  College,  only  to  be  ulti- 
mately abandoned,  as  it  was  abandoned  there,  and 
has  since  been  abandoned  at  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia itself,  as  inadequate  and  insufficient  under 
existing  conditions.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however, 
that  Curry  makes  no  comment  upon  its  effectiveness 
or  lack  of  it,  as  it  came  under  his  observation  at  that 
time. 

At  this  time  the  little  brown  books  are  full  of  notes 
of  a  more  or  less  domestic  and  personal  nature,  which 
record  the  graduation  of  his  daughter  at  the  Rich- 
mond Female  College  in  the  schools  of  English, 
French  and  Moral  Science;    the  inception  of  Mrs. 


IN   THE    OLD   DOMINION  221 

Curry's  work  as  a  teacher  of  the  infant  class  in  the 
Sunday  School  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  of  which 
she  made  a  great  success,  raising  this  class  in  numbers 
from  thirty,  when  she  first  took  charge  of  it,  to  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five,  when  she  gave  it  up  ten 
years  later,  on  account  of  ill-health;  and  of  various 
other  incidents  and  occurrences  of  temporary  per- 
sonal interest. 

The  invitations  to  pastorates  still  continued  to 
be  made  and  declined. 

On  his  return  from  St.  Louis,  in  obedience  to  such 
a  call,  he  heard  Beecher  preach  in  the  Brooklyn 
Tabernacle;  and  this  year,  too,  the  American 
Baptist  Publication  Society  published  his  tract, 
''Protestantism:  How  far  a  Failure" — a  discussion 
showing  the  development  of  his  mind  in  the  direc- 
tion of  technical  theological  investigation. 

But  perhaps  the  most  notable  event  of  the  year 
1869,  in  its  bearing  upon  his  later  career,  was  his 
meeting  with  Mr.  George  Peabody.  The  Peabody 
Fund  had,  at  that  time,  just  been  established;  and 
Dr.  Barnas  Sears,  an  able  and  scholarly  citizen  of 
Massachusetts,  had  been  made  its  Agent,  and  had 
come  south,  and  taken  up  his  residence  at  Staunton, 
in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  of  Virginia. 

''In  1869,"  writes  Curry  of  this  episode,  "at  the  White 
Sulphur  Springs,  I  had  the  honor  of  being  introduced  by 
Dr.  Sears  to  Mr.  Peabody.  This  was  the  first  and  only 
time  I  ever  saw  him.  The  interview  was  pleasant,  and 
I  was  agreeably  impressed  by  his  benevolent  countenance, 
the  dignity  and  ease  with  which  he  received  visitors,  and 
his  earnest,  patriotic  desire  that  the  impoverished  South 
should  be  benefitted  by  his  benefaction." 

Curry  has  left  in  his  "History  of  the  Peabody 


222      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Education  Fund  "  a  more  extended  account  of  both 
Mr.  Peabody  and  Dr.  Sears,  the  latter  of  whom  he 
visited  some  years  afterwards  at  his  home  in  Staunton. 

The  year  1870  brought  to  him  many  occasions  for 
wide  and  varied  service  in  the  causes  of  education 
and  rehgion.  He  attended  a  National  Baptist  Con- 
vention in  Brooklyn,  in  April  of  that  year,  which 
was  held  under  the  auspices  of  the  Brooklyn  Social 
Union, — in  many  respects  a  remarkable  assemblage, 
which  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  educational  move- 
ment of  the  time.  Curry  delivered  an  address  before 
the  Convention  on  the  '^  Condition  and  Prospects  of 
Education  in  the  South,"  as  affecting  both  races, 
with  especial  reference  to  the  duties  of  Baptists  in 
relation  thereto. 

In  June,  1870,  his  almost  abnormal  activity  took 
form  in  a  Report  to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  his  Church,  in  which  he  recommended  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  mission  in  Europe.  ''From  this,"  he 
modestly  writes  in  1877,  ''came  the  present  success- 
ful Italian  Mission." 

Recurring  to  his  diaries,  we  note  the  genesis  and 
beginning  of  the  Richmond  College  Law  School,  in 
these  simple  entries: — 

December  10,  1868. — Trustees  of  Richmond  College  de- 
termined to  establish  a  Law  School. 

October  11,  1870. — Delivered  my  first  lecture  to  Law 
Class  on  Constitutional  Law. 

And  about  1877:— 

In  October,  1870,  began  the  Law  School  of  Richmond 
College,  with  Mr.  William  Green,  Judge  Halyburton  and 
myself  as  Professors,  I  taking  the  chair  of  Constitutional 
and  International  Law. 


IN    THE    OLD    DOMINION  223 

It  was  a  remarkable  faculty  with  which  the  young 
law  school  opened  its  doors.  Curry,  himself,  was  a 
man  of  unusual  distinction,  wide  experience,  and 
strong  ability;  Judge  Halyburton  had  occupied  con- 
spicuous position  in  the  public  eye  in  ante-bellum 
years,  and  in  the  era  of  the  Confederacy;  and  Mr. 
William  Green  was,  by  the  testimony  of  his  brethren 
of  the  bar,  one  of  the  most  learned  lawyers  then 
living  in  America.  But  Halyburton  and  Green  were 
both  comparatively  aged  men,  with  "eyes  grown 
old  with  gazing  on  the  pilot-stars";  and  neither 
continued  long  in  their  new  chairs.  So  that  the 
burden  of  the  new  law  school  fell  upon  Curry, — a 
burden  which  he  bore  with  his  characteristic  energy 
and  ability  for  several  years. 

On  October  12,  of  this  year  (1870),  General  Robert 
E.  Lee  died  at  Lexington;  and  the  next  month  an 
historic  meeting  of  Confederate  soldiers  was  held  in 
Richmond  to  inaugurate  a  movement  for  building 
a  monument  to  the  great  leader  of  the  Southern 
armies.  This  meeting  convened  in  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church;  and,  amid  much  enthusiasm, 
speeches  were  made  by  ex-President  Davis,  Generals 
Gordon,  Preston,  and  Henry  A.  Wise;  and  Colonels 
Marshall,  Johnson,  Withers,  and  others.  The  move- 
ment resulted  in  the  noble  equestrian  monument  of 
Lee  that  is  now  one  of  the  chief  ornaments  of  Monu- 
ment Avenue  in  the  former  Confederate  Capital. 

At  this  time,  Dr.  Barnas  Sears,  the  General  Agent 
of  the  Peabody  Fund,  was  present  in  Richmond; 
and  on  November  2  he  was  Curry's  guest.  The 
same  day  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  Capitol  with 
the  object  of  advancing  the  cause  of  the  Common 
School  System,  provided  by  the  new  Constitution 


224      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

of  the  State,  and  already  inaugurated  by  Virginians 
under  the  restored  government  of  the  Common- 
wealth. The  deliberations  of  this  conference  were 
participated  in  by  Governor  Gilbert  C.  Walker,  Dr. 
Sears,  W.  W.  Walker  of  Westmoreland,  and  Curry, 
all  of  whom  delivered  addresses. 

In  December,  1870,  the  joint  committee  of  the 
two  houses  of  the  Virginia  Legislature,  then  in  ses- 
sion, to  which  had  been  referred  the  question  of  the 
disposal  of  the  Government  Land  Script,  held  public 
sessions  in  the  Capitol;  and  various  representatives 
of  the  colleges  and  higher  educational  institutions 
presented  the  claims  of  their  respective  institutions 
to  the  endowment.  Curry  in  two  able  and  earnest 
speeches  before  this  Committee  urged  the  claims  of 
Richmond  College;  but,  as  the  issue  developed, 
without  success. 

In  July,  1871,  the  Trustees  of  Richmond  College 
combined  the  schools  of  English  and  Moral  Science, 
and  elected  Curry  to  the  chair.  He  accepted  the 
appointment,  resigning  the  professorship  of  Law  in 
order  to  give  his  complete  official  time  to  this  work, 
which  was  more  congenial  to  his  tastes  than  that  of  a 
law  teacher.  Again  his  diary  is  a  dry  record  of  the 
addresses  that  he  delivered  in  1871,  and  of  the 
pastorates  and  professorships  that  he  declined.  He 
caps  the  climax  of  this  distinguished,  if  uninteresting 
period,  by  the  recital  of  his  declination  of  three  Col- 
lege presidencies  within  the  twelve  months,  namely, 
of  Georgetown  College,  Kentucky,  of  Mercer  Uni- 
versity, Georgia,  and  of  the  University  of  Alabama; 
and  notes  during  the  same  year  his  refusal  of  a  pro- 
fessorship in  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary.     Many  more  were  to  follow  from  all  parts 


IN    THE    OLD    DOMINION  225 

of  the  country,  among  them  that  of  the  University 
of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill,  whose  record  of 
educational  distinction  might  well  have  proved  an 
allurement  to  his  ambition. 

The  criterion  for  the  choice  of  a  professor  in  those 
days  was  not  exact  scholarship  and  published  re- 
search, but  personality,  impressive  human  qualities 
and  teaching  ability.  This  shifting  about  from  law 
to  English  and  from  philosophy  to  theology  strikes 
our  modern  notions  queerly,  but  poverty  and  the 
emphasis  on  teaching  ability  made  it  possible. 
Curry  could  teach  anything  attractively,  and  his 
energy  kept  his  attainments  always  in  advance  of  his 
pupils. 

The  year  1872  was,  in  his  own  words,  "active  and 
memorable";  but  more  from  his  personal  point  of 
view,  than  from  that  of  the  general  reader;  for  its 
record  embraces  solely  the  details  of  energetic  work 
done  by  him  in  behalf  of  his  church  and  of  the 
educational  institution  with  which  he  was  officially 
connected.  Such  civic,  religious  and  educational 
honors  continued  to  be  showered  upon  him  as  are 
usually  conferred  upon  few  men;  and  if  his  notation 
of  them  is  exact  almost  to  monotonousness,  it  is  none 
the  less  free  from  any  expression  which  indicates 
that  they  brought  with  them  elation  or  undue  self- 
appreciation. 

It  was  at  a  great  meeting  of  the  association  of  his 
church  that  a  Memorial  Campaign  was  organized 
that  aroused  much  of  his  enthusiasm,  and  to  whose 
work  he  contributed  no  little  of  his  energies  and 
efforts.  It  was  determined  to  celebrate  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  body;  "and,"  he  states,  "ap- 
propriately to  testify  our  gratitude,  it  was  resolved 


226      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

unanimously  by  the  Association  to  raise  Three 
Hundred  Thousand  Dollars  for  the  endowment  of 
Richmond  College.  Resolutions  were  adopted  look- 
ing to  a  grand  meeting  at  Richmond  the  ensuing 
year.  A  Memorial  Committee,  of  which  I  was  a 
member,  was  appointed  to  carry  out  the  project  of 
the  Memorial  Fund;  and  Dr.  J.  L.  Burrows  was 
chosen  as  the  Financial  Secretary." 

"Thus  began,"  he  continues,  "our  grand  Memorial 
Campaign,  when  the  Baptist  Churches  were  visited,  ad- 
dressed and  thoroughly  aroused.  Great  excitement  was 
produced.  Many  Baptist  preachers  and  laymen  became 
voluntary  agents  to  help  on  the  good  work.  We  com- 
bined with  the  Semi-Centennial  celebration  a  remem- 
brance of  what  the  Baptists  of  Virginia  had  done  for  the 
great  work  of  Religious  Liberty  in  the  United  States. 
This  involved  necessarily  a  recital  of  the  legislation  of 
the  Colony  and  a  discussion  of  the  principle  of  an  Estab- 
lishment. Collaterally,  Presbyterians  and  Methodists 
were  brought  into  the  discussion;  but  the  Episcopalians 
were  especially  sore  at  the  production  of  their  unenviable 
record.  Carefully  I  abstained  from  all  attacks  upon,  or 
criticism  of  the  Church,  and  confined  myself  to  a  discus- 
sion of  the  Establishment." 

In  1873  the  Baptist  Memorial  Campaign  was  ac- 
tively and  energetically  conducted ;  and  to  it  he  gave 
effective  and  enthusiastic  assistance.  During  the 
latter  days  of  May  and  the  earlier  days  of  June  of 
that  year  the  Semi-centennial  meeting,  which  the 
raising  of  the  Memorial  Fund  was  designed  to  com- 
memorate, was  held  in  Richmond.  Delegates  were 
present  from  many  States  of  the  Union  in  the  North, 
the  South  and  the  West.  Curry  writes  of  it  that  it 
was  the  largest  religious  convention  that  ever  assem- 


IN    THE    OLD    DOMINION  227 

bled  in  Virginia;  and  certainly  it  was  conspicuous 
among  religious  gatherings  of  a  similar  character  for 
the  enthusiasm  of  its  participants.  The  Association 
met  in  the  Second  Baptist  Church,  and  he  was  re- 
elected its  President.  The  building  itself  was  inade- 
quate to  hold  the  great  numbers  in  attendance;  and 
the  largest  audiences  were  accommodated  under  a 
huge  tent  which  was  erected  upon  the  Richmond 
College  grounds.  A  number  of  the  Church's  most 
distinguished  leaders  and  divines  were  present, 
among  whom  were  Dr.  J.  A.  Broadus,  conspicuous  as 
a  great  pulpit  orator  of  his  generation,  and  for  his 
unusual  gift  of  eloquence;  Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter,  a  former 
President  of  the  College,  and  noted  as  an  able  preacher 
and  strong  controversialist,  and  who  was  widely 
known  as  the  editor  of  the  Religious  Herald,  and  as 
the  author  of  a  number  of  published  works;  Dr. 
Sears,  the  General  Agent  of  the  Peabody  Fund,  and 
one  of  the  most  eminent  scholars;  and  Dr.  S.  S.  Cut- 
ting, the  first  Secretary  of  the  American  Baptist 
Educational  Commission,  and  himself  a  writer  and 
theologian  of  national  distinction.  On  the  second 
day  of  the  session  Curry  delivered  to  a  large  and 
deeply  interested  audience  an  address  on  the  subject 
of  "The  Struggles  and  Triumphs  of  Virginia  Bap- 
tists," a  notable  historical  contribution  to  the  story 
of  the  struggle  for  Religious  Freedom  in  Virginia, 
which  was  pubhshed  by  the  American  Baptist  Pub- 
lication Society,  and  reached  a  wide  circulation. 

The  Montgomery  White  Sulphur  Springs  at  this 
period  vied  with  the  old  Greenbrier  White  in  the 
distinction  and  eminence  of  its  guests  and  habitues; 
and  in  the  late  summer  of  1873  Curry  attended  a 
meeting  there  of  the  members  of  the  Southern  His- 


228      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

torical  Society,  which  was  presided  over  by  ''Honest 
John"  Letcher,  the  War  Governor  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  addressed  by  General  Jubal  A.  Early. 
The  object  of  the  Society,  which  has  down  to  the 
present  time  continued  to  maintain  a  successful  and 
highly  important  existence,  was  "to  collect  and  pre- 
serve materials  for  an  authentic  history  "  of  the  South ; 
and  among  others  who  were  present  at  this  meeting, 
and  interested  with  Curry  and  their  other  associates 
in  the  work  of  the  Society,  were  Generals  Beaure- 
gard, Wilcox,  Fitzhugh  Lee,  Dabney  H.  Maury  and 
Humes,  and  Commander  Raphael  Semmes,  of  the 
Confederate  ship,  the  "Alabama."  Curry  records  a 
later  meeting  of  the  Society  in  October  of  the  same 
year,  that  was  held  in  Richmond,  the  ,  partici- 
pants in  which  were  scarcely  less  famous.  Among 
them  he  mentions  General  Early,  who  presided  clad 
in  a  suit  of  Confederate  gray,  such  as  he  wore  to  the 
day  of  his  death;  Dr.  Hoge,  the  eminent  and  eloquent 
Presbyterian  divine,  whose  oration  at  the  unveiling 
of  the  statue  of  "Stonewall"  Jackson,  presented  by 
English  gentlemen  to  the  State  of  Virginia,  suggested, 
in  its  lofty  dignity,  the  eloquence  of  Bossuet;  Gen- 
eral Wade  Hampton,  later  Governor  of  South  Caro- 
lina, and  Senator  from  that  State,  and  Major  Robert 
Stiles,  whose  subsequently  pubHshed  "Four  Years 
with  Marse  Robert  "  ranks  with  the  best  stories  of 
the  great  tragedy  of  the  War  between  the  States. 
It  is  pleasant  and  inspiriting  to  behold  these  men,  un- 
broken in  spirit,  taking  counsel  together  how  they 
might  preserve  and  increase  the  spiritual  and  intel- 
lectual integrity  of  a  society  whose  outlook  then 
seemed  almost  hopeless. 

Nothing,  however,  appears  to  have  served  in  any 


IN    THE    OLD    DOMINION  229 

degree  to  deflect  him  from  the  two  things  with  which 
his  mind  and  heart  during  this  period  were  overflow- 
ing. His  first  and  foremost  thought  and  effort  ahke 
were  in  behalf  of  the  causes  of  reUgion  and  of  educa- 
tion; and  he  continued,  whenever  his  professional 
duties  permitted,  the  self-imposed  work  of  speaking 
and  preaching  in  many  places.  Of  all  of  these 
speeches  and  sermons  he  makes  systematic  record; 
and  among  the  memoranda  of  this  year  occurs  the 
following  quaint  entry  of  an  experience  in  Southwest 
Virginia : — 

Made  a  Sunday  School  talk  and  preached  at  a  Luth- 
eran Church  in  the  country.  Collection  taken  up  for 
Professor  of  Theology  at  Roanoke  College,  sixty  cents. 
Hard  crowd. 

Sometime  in  October  of  this  year  he  attended  the 
World's  Evangelical  Alliance  in  New  York  City, 
where  he  met  with  severe  criticism  on  account  of 
the  frankness  of  his  arguments  against  the  alliance 
of  Church  and  State  in  England.  He  attacked  the 
establishment  of  the  Church  in  that  country  with 
an  earnestness  and  vigor  that  were  more  character- 
istic than  discreet,  in  view  of  the  presence  in  which 
he  spoke;  and  he  was  called  to  order  amid  demon- 
strations of  considerable  feeling  and  excitement.  He 
has  left  the  following  account  of  this  episode  among 
his  notes : — 

Delegates  from  Europe,  Asia  and  America  were  pres- 
ent. I  delivered  an  address,  prepared  by  request  of  Dr. 
Schaff  and  others  on  the  "Relations  of  Church  and 
State."  An  officious  extension  of  time  by  one  Dr. 
Crookes,  a  Methodist  minister,  produced  an  intense 
excitement.     The  Assembly  en  masse  cheered  and  hur- 


230      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

rahed  and  demanded  that  I  should  proceed;  but  I  de- 
cUned  and  retired,  being  followed  by  three-fourths  of 
the  audience.  Besides  its  appearance  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  Alliance,  my  address  was  widely  published  in 
Europe  and  America,  and  the  Liberation  Society  of  Eng- 
land issued  it  as  a  tract  to  help  them  in  their  work. 

Curry's  account  of  the  incident  does  not  seem, 
however,  to  be  exact  in  the  light  of  the  reports  of  the 
current  newspaper-press  of  the  time.  These  show 
that  he  was  called  'Ho  order  "  rather  than  'Ho  time"; 
and  that  Dr.  Crookes,  who  was  presiding,  interrupted 
him,  not  so  much  because  his  half-hour  was  up  as 
because  his  speech  was  regarded  as  unpleasant  by 
some  of  the  English  churchmen  who  were  present. 

Curry's  status  as  a  citizen  of  Virginia  had  by  this 
time  become  so  firmly  established,  and  the  impression 
which  his  ability  and  devotion  had  made  upon  the 
people  of  the  State  was  so  strong  that  in  January, 
1874,  members  of  the  Legislature  then  in  session  at 
Richmond  approached  him  with  the  suggestion  that 
he  should  become  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  State 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction.  At  this  time 
Dr.  William  H.  Ruffner,  who  had  drafted  the  bill 
establishing  the  public  school  system  under  the  new 
Constitution  of  Virginia,  and  had  been  elected  the 
first  Superintendent,  was  discharging  with  great 
zeal  and  ability  the  duties  of  the  office;  and  either 
in  recognition  of  Ruffner's  services  in  this  position, 
or  because  he  did  not  care  to  adventure  the  contest, 
or  for  some  other  reason  that  is  not  disclosed,  Curry 
declined  the  invitation.  At  the  same  session  of  the 
Legislature,  when  that  body  was  anxiously  looking 
around  for  a  fit  and  proper  person  to  represent  Vir- 
ginia in  the  Federal  Senate, — a  search  which  finally 


IN    THE    OLD    DOMINION  231 

resulted  in  the  selection  of  Col.  Robert  E.  Withers, — 
Curry's  name,  with  those  of  a  number  of  other 
native  or  adopted  Virginians,  was  suggested  for  the 
position.  That  his  just  self-esteem  was  touched  by 
the  suggestion  is  evidenced  by  the  note  that  he  makes 
of  it;  but  it  is  very  questionable  if  he  was  ever 
seriously  considered  by  any  large  number  of  the 
members. 

"Visited  the  Legislature,"  he  writes  under  date 
of  January  10,  1874,  in  his  diary,  "in  session  for  half 
an  hour.  Several  members  propose  to  use  my  name 
for  United  States  Senate,  as  caucus  of  Conservative 
members  have  not  been  able  to  agree  on  a  can- 
didate." 

In  January,  1875,  he  began  preaching  at  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  according  to  an  agreement 
which  he  had  made  in  the  preceding  November  to 
supply  the  pulpit  for  two  months  following  the 
resignation  of  Dr.  J.  L.  Burrows.  This  pastorate 
of  two  months  was  prolonged  to  six;  and  in  the 
meantime  he  declined  a  call  for  a  year.  His  work 
in  this  temporary  pastorship  was  broadened  by 
degrees  in  various  directions,  the  most  distinctive  of 
which  was  a  course  of  lectures  to  the  church  on  the 
principles  of  the  Baptists,  which  were  dealt  with, 
as  he  states,  "not  controversially,  but  for  informa- 
tion." 

Curry  had  now  reached  the  meridian  of  life — fifty 
years  of  age.  He  had  come  up  to  Virginia  from  the 
lower  South  at  forty-three,  in  obedience  to  an  im- 
pulse always  dominant  in  him,  seeking  an  oppor- 
tunity to  array  himself  with  the  forces  of  progress 
and  growth.  Wealth  and  dignity  of  living  had 
fallen  to  his  lot,  emancipating  him  from  sordid  anx- 


232      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

ieties.     Love  and  admiration  and  sympathy,  con- 
ditions absolutely  necessary  to  the  manifestation  of 
his  highest  powers,  stimulated  and  pricked  him  on 
to  effort  and  helpfulness.     His  health  was  robust 
and  his  ambitions  keen.     He  had  a  genius  for  pop- 
ularity, a  nature  for  public  service.     The  abiding 
value  of  the  idea  of  community  effort,  of  collectivism 
in  a  democracy,  came  to  him  instinctively,  as  they 
did  to  Jefferson,  despite  the  individualistic  theories 
of  government  held  by  both.     He  was  such  a  figure 
of  humanitarian  enthusiasm  as  New  England  had 
produced  too  luxuriantly,  almost  rankly,  but  which 
the   South,    since   Jefferson's   time,    had   produced 
rarely.     He  beheld  society  as  an  organism  trying  to 
grow  under  law.     His  passion  was  to  aid  in  finding 
the  law  and  in  welcoming  and  leading  the  growth. 
He   beheld   Southern   society,   with   unconquerable 
courage,  seeking  new  standards  and  new  ways  of 
life,  new  economic  conditions,  amid  a  devastation 
unequalled  in  modern  times.     Proud,  sensitive  de- 
mocracies must  be  pleaded  with  and  shown  how  to  do 
things  needful  to  their  growth,  with  infinite  tact  and 
patience.     This  was  Curry's  function.     He  was  a 
pleader  and  a  teacher  and  an  ambassador  to  a  proud, 
capable,  stricken,  but  indomitable  democracy.     The 
bare  record  as  set  forth  in  this  chapter  seems  scrappy 
and  fragmentary.    We  see  an  intensely  busy  man 
teaching    youth    anything,  from  law  to  literature, 
preaching  everywhere  from  the  Pacific  to  the  At- 
lantic, foremost  in  all  great  educational  or  religious 
organizations,  writing  for  the  press,  rushing  hither 
and  thither  and  very  happy  and  jubilant,  not  only 
over  the  tasks  at  hand  but  over  the  calls  that  every- 
where came  to  him  to  come  and  help  everybody. 


IN    THE    OLD    DOMINION  233 

Looked  at  closely,  however,  these  vu'ile  seven  years 
of  Curry's  in  the  Old  Dominion  are  not  desultory 
years.  They  form  a  complete  unit  and  constitute  a 
perfect  preparation  for  the  supreme  work  which 
society  needed  to  exact  of  him.  The  significance  of 
moral  character,  the  training  of  all  the  people,  the 
spread  of  social  sympathy — this  trinity  of  public 
virtues  was  the  creed  this  tireless  public  preacher 
was  crying  out  to  the  South  and  to  the  Nation  from 
the  vantage  ground  of  the  great  Commonwealth 
which  had  given  the  Nation  birth,  and  had  so  suffered 
for  duty's  sake  as  to  evoke  the  tenderness  and  re- 
gard of  generous  minds  in  all  lands. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

POLITICS   AND    PRINCIPLES 

The  Presidential  election,  the  result  of  which  was 
finally  determined  by  the  extra-constitutional  Elec- 
toral Commission,  took  place  in  1876;  and  Curry,  in 
common  with  the  mass  of  the  American  people,  ex- 
perienced a  deep  interest  in  its  conduct  and  results. 
His  journal  of  the  period  makes  usually  but  scant 
record  of  contemporaneous  politics.  The  eager  poli- 
tician of  the  'fifties,  absorbed  in  religious  and  edu- 
cational work,  seemed  to  have  forgotten  the  existence 
of  the  machinery  of  government,  but  this  startling 
event,  whose  issue  threatened  at  one  time  grave  and 
portentous  results,  is  frequently  mentioned  by  him. 
He  notes  his  exercise  of  the  franchise  on  election 
day,  as  follows: — 

Tuesday,  Nov.  7,  1876. — Voted  before  breakfast  for 
Tilden  and  Hendricks,  and  for  amendments  to  the  (State) 
Constitution. 

The  following  day  shows  this  entry: — 

Wednesday,  8. — News  from  the  election  of  yesterday 
assures  the  success  of  Tilden  &  Hendricks.  Result  rather 
unexpected.  People  gathered  in  the  streets  in  front  of 
the  Dispatch  office,  reading  and  hearing  telegrams  from 
various  States  and  shouting  vociferously.  We  feel  as  if 
the  days  of  Federal  tyranny  were  numbered.  Praise  God 
from  whom  all  blessings  flow. 

234 


POLITICS    AND   PRINCIPLES        235 

His  patriotic  exultation  was  short-lived.  On 
Thursday,  the  9th,  he  writes: — 

Negroes  very  noisy  and  jubilant  over  Hayes'  election, 
which  is  not  a  "fixed  fact." 

Other  memoranda  bearing  upon  the  controverted 
result  appear  from  time  to  time. 

Nov.  20. — Still  much  uneasiness  about  the  Presidential 
election.  Universal  distrust  of  President  Grant  and  his 
party.  Fraud  or  usurpation  not  considered  beyond  their 
purpose  or  capability.  I  am  tired  of  this  turmoil  and 
distrust.     I  want  a  country  I  can  love. 

Dec.  2. — The  country  is  much  excited  about  the  Presi- 
dential election.  In  South  Carolina.  Florida  and  Louis- 
iana serious  charges  of  fraud  and  intimidation  on  both 
sides.  Gen.  Grant  has  sent  troops  to  each  of  the  States. 
The  votes  of  those  States,  if  counted  for  Hayes,  elect  him. 
One  electoral  vote  will  elect  Tilden.  Business  seriously 
affected  by  the  possibility  of  an  outbreak. 

Dec.  6,  1876. — The  Legislature  of  Virginia  and  the  Elec- 
toral College  meet  in  Richmond  to-day.  Heard  that 
Louisiana,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina,  the  doubtful 
States,  had  been  so  manipulated  as  to  secure  their  votes 
for  Hayes  and  Wheeler. 

The  early  part  of  1877  found  the  issue  still  unde- 
termined; and  in  order  to  reach  a  settlement  the 
contending  parties  agreed  upon  the  creation  and  or- 
ganizing of  the  famous  Electoral  Commission,  which, 
after  listening  to  the  arguments  of  counsel  and 
gravely  considering  many  momentous  questions  of 
law  and  fact,  decided  the  contest  at  last  according 
to  the  law  of  human  nature.  The  Repubhcans  upon 
the  Commission  were  in  a  numerical  majority  of  one; 
and  the  Electoral  Commission,  by  a  majority  of  one, 


236      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

declared  the  Republican  nominees  elected.  Curry, 
keeping  tally  in  his  journal  of  the  situation,  writes, 
under  date  of  February  10,  1877:  ''News  this  morn- 
ing rather  gloomy.  Seems  as  if  the  Commission  by  a 
party  vote  will  decide  in  favor  of  Hayes  for  Presi- 
dent." 

Later  in  the  month  he  and  his  son,  Manly,  went 
to  Washington;  and  the  diary,  under  the  date  of 
February  24,  contains  the  following: — 

After  going  to  the  President's  house,  we  went  to  the 
Capitol  and  spent  most  of  the  day  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, to  the  floor  of  which  both  of  us  were  admitted. 

We  witnessed  the  assembling  of  the  two  Houses  twice 
to  count  the  electoral  votes.  Oregon,  having  passed  the 
Commission,  was  after  debate  passed  on.  Pennsylvania 
was  objected  to. 

Much  dissatisfaction  with  the  Commission.  Demo- 
crats complain  of  having  been  deceived.  Some  bitterness 
on  the  part  of  Northwestern  Democrats  towards  Eastern. 
Southern  Democrats  opposed  to  mere  dilatory  and  fac- 
tious opposition. 

Not  impressed  by  the  ability  of  the  House.  Very  few 
of  the  members  with  whom  I  served. 

He  again  visited  Washington  on  March  2. 

Reached  Washington  at  1 :30  and  stopped  at  Willard's 
Hotel.  Went  in  the  afternoon  and  at  night  to  the  Capitol. 
The  Congress  having  this  morning,  at  5  a.  m.,  after  a 
night's  session,  elected  Hayes  President,  the  business  was 
of  a  routine  character.  I  met  in  the  Senate  and  House  a 
number  of  old  associates.  The  House  did  not  impress  me 
favorably.  Many  of  the  members  of  very  ordinary  abil- 
ity. At  night  I  remained  until  10  o'clock.  .  .  .  The 
feeling  of  Democrats  quite  bitter,  regarding  themselves  as 
having  been  cheated  out  of  the  Presidency. 


POLITICS   AND   PRINCIPLES        237 

Curry's  natural  interest  in  the  momentous  ques- 
tion before  Congress  and  the  Commission  would  of 
itself  have  afforded  sufficient  reason  for  his  visits  to 
Washington  at  this  time;  but  there  was  also  a  ques- 
tion of  a  more  personal  character  that  was  doubtless 
an  impelling  motive  for  his  presence  in  the  national 
capital.  His  pardon  for  bearing  arms  against  the 
Government  in  the  War  between  the  States  had  been 
granted  in  October,  1865,  by  President  Johnson;  but 
during  the  twelve  years  following  he  still  rested  under 
political  disabilities.  In  1872  a  general  amnesty 
bill  had  been  passed  by  the  Congress  removing  the 
political  disabilities  imposed  by  the  new  amendments 
to  the  Constitution;  but  from  its  provisions  were 
excepted  about  seven  hundred  and  fifty  persons, 
who  had  held  the  highest  positions  under  the  United 
States  government.  He  wanted,  as  he  had  written, 
"a,  government  that  he  could  love";  his  ardent  tem- 
perament and  instinctive  patriotism  demanded  the 
exercise  of  loyalty,  and  it  was  not  unnatural,  though 
painful,  for  him  to  entertain  some  lack  of  complete 
affection  for  the  government  under  which  he  was 
still  inhibited  from  the  right  to  hold  office.  The  bill 
to  remove  his  disabilities  was  passed  by  the  Senate 
on  February  27,  1877;  and  on  March  2  the  formali- 
ties were  completed  by  which  he  was  restored  to  full 
citizenship.  Upon  the  following  day  he  received  an 
extraordinary  tribute  to  his  high  character,  his  repu- 
tation for  great  ability,  and  his  conceded  patriotism. 

"I  called  at  the  Capitol,"  he  wrote,  many  years  later, 
"  and  had  a  pleasant  interview  with  Senator  Sherman,  who 
had,  unsought,  interposed  in  favor  of  the  removal  of  my 
political  disabilities,  and  for  whose  integrity,  patriotism, 
and  ability  I  had  great  respect  and  admiration.  When 


238      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

leaving,  he  asked  me  if  I  were  not  going  to  see  the  Presi- 
dent. I  repUed  that  as  a  matter  of  respect  and  friendship 
I  should  be  glad  of  the  privilege,  but  I  had  no  business  with 
him,  and  besides  must  leave  the  city  in  a  few  hours.  To 
this  he  answered,  'You  ought  to  go.  He  likes  you  very 
much.  I  have  often  heard  him  speak  well  of  you.'  '  If  I 
were  to  try  to  see  him,  I  could  not,  as  hundreds  of  people 
must  be  pressing  for  interviews.'  'I  will  arrange  that. 
He  is  at  my  house.  Take  this  card.'  Writing  something 
on  the  card,  which  contained  his  name  and  street  address, 
he  handed  it  to  me,  and  I  left.  Arriving  at  the  house,  I 
sent  in  my  card  and  Mr.  Sherman's,  and  was  requested  to 
wait  a  few  minutes  until  a  deputation  from  Ohio  retired. 
In  a  few  minutes  I  had  a  cordial  welcome.  After  the  usual 
inquiries,  he  expressed  earnestly  his  desire  and  purpose  so 
to  conduct  his  administration  as  to  bring  the  estranged 
sections  into  harmony  and  fraternity.  Then  to  my  sur- 
prise and  gratification  he  declared  his  willingness  to  put 
into  his  cabinet  some  Southern  men,  or  a  Southern  man, 
who  had  voted  for  Mr.  Tilden,  provided  the  person  would 
give  his  administration  an  impartial  support.  A  place  in 
the  Cabinet  was  tendered  to  me,  but  declined  with  proper 
and  sincere  expressions  of  thankfulness  for  the  confidence 
reposed.  He  then  said  he  was  willing  to  appoint  Gen. 
Joseph  E.  Johnston,  and  wished  my  opinion  as  to  his  ac- 
ceptance on  the  conditions  mentioned.  As  to  his  accept- 
ance I  had  no  knowledge,  but  the  acceptance  would  imply 
necessarily  loyalty  to  his  Chief.  Having  so  confided  in 
me,  I  ventured  to  say  that  the  appointment  would  defeat 
the  patriotic  purpose  of  pacification  he  so  warmly  ex- 
pressed. Gen.  Johnston  was  so  identified  with  the  Con- 
federacy, his  promotion  to  a  high  place  would  awaken  bit- 
terest opposition  in  the  North,  and  its  strength  would  be 
such  as  greatly  to  cripple,  if  not  defeat,  his  policy.  After 
asking  me  about  Gov.  Hubbard  of  Texas  and  Judge  Key 
of  Tennessee,  afterwards  made  Postmaster  General,  he 
expressed  a  desire  to  make  the  Federal  appointments  in 


POLITICS    AND   PEINCIPLES        239 

the  South  acceptable  to  that  section.  I  felt  it  my  duty  to 
express  strongly  my  conviction:  'The  South  will  not  ob- 
ject to  have  the  offices  filled  by  Northern  men,  if  they  are 
honest  and  true,  and  go  South,  not  to  fleece  the  people, 
but  to  identify  themselves  with  the  country  and  its  inter- 
ests.' 'It  would  be  better,'  he  responded,  'not  to  float  the 
office-holders,  but  to  select  them  from  the  residents.' 
'No,  no,'  I  interposed,  'you  cannot  find  in  the  South  a 
sufficient  number  of  capable  and  honest  white  Republi- 
cans to  fill  the  offices  at  your  disposal.'  This  was  naturally 
received  with  some  incredulity;  but  I  reasserted  what  I  felt 
to  be  demonstrable  truth,  and  I  knew  that  putting  '  scala- 
wags,' as  they  were  called,  in  responsible  places  meant  the 
defeat  of  his  noble  purpose,  and  the  serious  injury  of  the 
South. 

"  This  conversation  occurred  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
and  thanks  to  President  Hayes  and  the  better  under- 
standing between  the  sections,  and  the  wiser  action  of  the 
governments,  my  strong  expressions  would  now  require 
large  modifications." 

Curry's  diary  for  this  year  contains  a  number  of 
interesting,  if  desultory,  entries.  Among  them  are 
the  following: — 

March  7. — Took  supper  with  Dr.  Coleman.  Moses 
Ezekiel,  the  sculptor,  was  the  guest, — a  native  of  Rich- 
mond, a  Jew.  He  made  for  the  Jews  a  statue  of  Religious 
Liberty,  which  was  unveiled  during  the  Centennial.  In 
Mr.  Ezekiel's  studio  in  Rome  we  saw  the  huge  block  on  the 
first  or  second  day  after  the  workmen  began  upon  it. 

Since  its  author  penned  the  foregoing  paragraph, 
the  guest  of  Dr.  Coleman's  whom  he  was  invited  to 
meet  has  achieved  a  larger  fame  that  extends  over 
two  continents,  and  is  illustrated  in  America  not 
only  by  his  statue  of  Religious  Liberty,  but  by  many 


240      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

other  noble  works  of  art,  that  have  sprung  from  his 
chisel  in  his  workshop  at  the  Eternal  City  in  the 
old  Baths  of  Diocletian.  Ezekiel,  now  a  chevalier  by 
the  grace  of  the  King  of  Italy,  was  a  cadet  at  the 
Virginia  Military  Institute  in  the  later  years  of  the 
War  between  the  States,  and  took  part  with  the 
cadet  battalion  in  their  heroic  charge  at  New  Market 
in  1861, — an  episode  that  he  has  commemorated  in 
his  bronze  statue  of  ''Virginia  lamenting  her  Dead," 
on  the  grounds  of  the  Institute  at  Lexington.  His 
Jefferson,  donated  by  the  sculptor  himself,  adorns 
the  north  front  of  the  Rotunda  plaza  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia. 

Under  the  same  date  the  diarist  writes : — 

The  Secretary  of  the  Baptist  Publication  Society  noti- 
fies me  to-day  that  for  a  tract  of  mine  on  The  Distinctive 
Principles  of  the  Baptists,  the  premium  of  Fifty  Dollars 
offered  for  the  best  on  that  subject  was  awarded. 

He  was  at  his  father's  old  home  in  Talladega 
County  a  few  days  later;  and  wrote  of  it  in  his  jour- 
nal:— 

March  13. — Stopped  at  my  father's  place,  where  I 
spent  my  boyhood  years.  Much  dilapidated.  Looked  at 
the  graves  in  the  garden.  A  bad  custom  to  bury  the  dead 
on  farms  in  the  country,  as  they  change  owners  so  fre- 
quently. When  my  father  removed  to  this  place  in  May, 
1838,  it  was  very  beautiful.  The  soil  was  fertile,  the  water- 
courses clear,  game  was  abundant,  and  there  were  some 
unremoved  Indians. 

Of  the  town  of  Talladega,  under  the  same  date,  he 
wrote : — 

Returned  to  town.  Spent  some  time  in  the  Court 
House,  where  I  practised  law  and  made  many  political 


POLITICS   AND   PRINCIPLES        241 

speeches.  People  are  poor  and  depressed.  Radical  mis- 
rule has  been  impoverishing. 

March  31. — Letter  from  Dr.  Hoge,  in  behalf  of  the 
Board  of  Directors,  offering  me  the  Presidency  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Bible  Society.    Declined. 

April  28. — Reached  Washington  at  2  a.  m.  St.  James 
Hotel.  Called  on  Mr.  A.  H.  Stephens;  found  him  abed 
and  cheerful.    Spoke  highly  of  Mr.  Hayes. 

At  Willard's  Hotel  had  a  long  talk  with  Senators  Gor- 
don and  Lamar,  Gov.  Colquitt  of  Georgia,  and  W.  H. 
Trescott  of  South  Carolina,  on  the  pohtical  outlook. 

Called  on  Mr.  Sherman,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Mr.  Lamar  and  I  called  on  the  President  and  had  a 
pleasant  interview.  The  President  seems  determined  to 
unite  North  and  South  as  one  people.  He  is  very  sensible, 
good  mannered  and  patriotic. 

During  the  summer  he  visited  Dr.  Sears,  in  Staun- 
ton, on  his  return  from  the  Warm  Springs : — 

July  31,  1877.— At  12:30  p.  m.  stage  for  Millboro. 
View  from  mountain  magnificent.  Supper  at  Millboro. 
Car  for  Staunton.  Arrived  at  midnight.  Found  Dr. 
Sears'  son  waiting  to  conduct  me  to  his  father's  house  on 
the  hill  overlooking  the  town.  Place  much  improved. 
The  oaks  encouraged;  other  trees  and  flowers  along  the 
gravelled  walks.  Quite  a  variety  of  fruit  trees.  House 
well  arranged,  economizing  space,  and  neatly  furnished. 

August  1. — Coming  from  chamber  to  parlor  Dr.  Sears 
gave  me  a  cordial  greeting.  Until  12  in  the  house  and 
under  the  trees,  we  talked  of  Education  at  the  South  and 
the  Peabody  work.  Dr.  Sears  said  he  was  in  Boston  to 
lecture  before  the  Social  Science  Association.  Geo.  B. 
Emerson  invited  him  to  a  club  of  Bostonians.  Mr.  R.  C. 
Winthrop,  who  was  present,  invited  him  to  present  in  writ- 
ing his  views  as  to  the  proper  expenditure  of  the  Peabody 
Grant,  as  the  Trustees  were  to  hold  their  first  meeting  in 
a  few  days  in  New  York.    This  he  did  in  a  letter  of  eight 


242      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

pages.  When  the  Trustees  met,  his  suggestions  were 
adopted,  and  he  was  elected  Secretary  to  carry  them  out. 
Thus  arose  his  connection  with  the  Peabody  Fund. 

While  Horace  Mann  was  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Education  in  Massachusetts,  and  during  Dr.  Sears'  first 
two  years  in  that  office,  their  salary  of  $1,500  each  was 
paid  by  a  Mr.  Dwight. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  year  Richmond  was  visited 
by  a  distinguished  party  of  guests,  to  whom  was 
given  a  cordial  and  hospitable  reception,  in  which 
Curry  bore  a  prominent  part.  His  account  of  this 
event  appears  in  his  diary. 

October  30. — Accompanied  a  deputation  of  the  City 
Council  and  a  committee  of  the  Agricultural  Society,  on 
special  invitation  to  meet  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  At  Quantico  met  him,  his  wife  and  his  two  sons, 
Secretary  Sherman  and  wife.  Secretary  Evarts,  Secretary 
Thompson,  Attorney  General  Devens,  General  J.  T.  Mor- 
gan and  others.  En  route  great  curiosity  to  see  Mr.  Hayes. 
At  Fredericksburg,  a  reception.  As  we  came  within  the 
limits  of  the  City  of  Richmond  great  crowds,  all  the  mili- 
tary, fire  companies,  etc.,  turned  out  to  welcome  the  visi- 
tors. At  a  stand,  near  Monroe  Park,  the  President  and 
Cabinet  spoke  to  many  thousands.  I  was  called  for.  The 
President  introduced  me  as  his  old  college  mate;  and  I 
asked  for  three  cheers,  which  were  given  and  repeated. 
En  route  to  the  hotel  the  streets  were  lined  with  enthusias- 
tic people  and  flags.  The  President  received  at  the  Ex- 
change Hotel  at  night.    General  Morgan  our  guest. 

October  31. — Called  at  10  on  the  Presidential  party. 
Soon  started  to  the  Fair.  Governor  Kemper  on  the 
grounds,  welcomed  the  President  to  the  State.  All  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  General  Morgan  and  Dr. 
Loring,  member  of  Congress  from  Massachusetts,  spoke. 
Mrs.  Hayes  was  introduced  to  the  multitude,  who  cheered 
vociferously. 


POLITICS    AND    PRINCIPLES        243 

The  Governor  gave  the  President  and  party  a  reception 
and  then  a  collation. 

November  1. — At  10  a.  m.,  the  President  and  Mrs. 
Hayes,  Mr.  Sherman,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  Mrs. 
Sherman,  Mr.  Evarts,  Secretary  of  State,  R.  W.  Thomp- 
son, Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Devens,  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, Governor  Kemper,  Generals  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
W.  H.  F.  Lee  and  Wickham,  Judge  Meredith,  Hon.  J.  T. 
Morgan,  Senator  from  Alabama,  Mr.  James  Thomas  and 
Miss  Kate  C.  Thomas  breakfasted  with  us.  Room  hand- 
somely decorated  with  flowers. 

V/ent  to  Fair  Grounds.  President  and  members  of  Cabi- 
net spoke.  The  President  reviewed  the  First  Virginia 
Regiment,  and  some  other  companies. 

Dined  at  Col.  Hobson's  with  Generals  Morgan,  Maury 
and  S.  G.  Jones  and  Colonel  Archer  Anderson. 

In  the  latter  part  of  December,  1877,  Curry  spent 
several  days  in  New  York  City,  where  he  met  Presi- 
dent Hayes  again.  He  preached  at  Hanson  Place, 
Brooklyn,  and  attended  various  gatherings  of  more 
or  less  importance.  Under  date  of  December  21, 
his  first  day  in  the  metropolis,  he  makes  the  follow- 
ing entry  in  his  journal: — 

In  the  afternoon,  at  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  I 
heard  an  informal  lecture  of  Rev.  Joseph  Cook  before  the 
students  and  others  on  the  Advantage  of  Philosophical 
Studies  in  a  course  of  Theological  training.  Present,  Doc- 
tors Adams,  Hitchcock,  Shedd,  Schaff,  Hall,  Taylor, 
Ralph  Wells,  and  others. 

At  night  heard  him  again  in  the  hall  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  on  Ultimate  America.  The  poet, 
Wilham  CuUen  Bryant,  presided. 

During  1877  Curry's  previous  experience  of  re- 
ceiving calls  to  many  pulpits  in  various  directions, 


244      J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

and  elections  to  professorships  and  presidencies  of 
educational  institutions,  was  repeated.  He  was 
offered  the  Presidency  of  the  East  Tennessee  Uni- 
versity, and,  provisionally,  that  of  Richmond  College; 
and  he  declined  calls  from  churches  in  St.  Louis  and 
Baltimore;  and  he  received  invitations  to  make  ad- 
dresses and  deliver  lectures  almost  without  number. 
On  February  23,  1877,  he  makes  the  following  entry 
in  his  journal,  illustrative  of  the  many  demands  upon 
his  time  and  energies: — 

Invitations  to  lecture  in  Norfolk,  Portsmouth  and 
Petersburg. 

People  seem  to  think  that  I  am  a  public  servant,  with 
nothing  to  do  but  respond  to  their  calls. 

With  all  his  enthusiasms  and  aroused  interests, 
which  responded  whenever  possible  to  such  demands, 
their  number  outweighed  his  strength  and  time;  and 
it  is  scarcely  a  matter  of  wonder  that  occasionally 
his  patience  became  strained.  Many  other  solicita- 
tions to  render  all  sorts  of  services,  and  do  all  kinds 
of  things,  were  added  to  the  burden  of  these  invita- 
tions. On  November  15th  he  writes  in  his  diary  an 
amusing  list  of  what  a  day  may  bring  forth  in  the 
life  of  such  a  man: — 

As  illustration  of  requests  made  of  me  to-day,  I  have 
been  asked, 

1.  For  photograph. 

2.  To  read  preliminary  chapters  of  a  novel,  write  notice, 
get  a  publisher. 

3.  Obtain  employment  as  associate  or  corresponding 
editor. 

4.  Find  grave  of  a  dead  soldier,  and  cost  of  removal  to 
Alabama. 

5.  Give  opinion  on  feet- washing,  as  a  religious  rite. 


POLITICS    AND   PRINCIPLES        245 

6.  Give  opinion  on  rightfulness  of  firing  tobacco  on 
Sunday. 

7.  On  suits  by  administrator  against  a  brother-member 
of  a  church. 

8.  Secure  appointment  as  superintendent  of  schools  in 
a  county. 

9.  Tell  what  is  meant  in  24  Matt.  30  by  "Sign  of  the 
Son  of  Man  in  heaven." 

10.  Tell  whether  meteoric  shower  in  1833  had  been 
predicted  by  scientists. 

This  in  addition  to  regular  college  duties  and  faculty 
meetings. 

In  1878  the  question  of  the  payment  of  the  public 
debt  of  the  Commonwealth,  which  had  been  con- 
tracted prior  to  the  War  between  the  States,  and 
before  the  separation  of  the  State  of  West  Virginia, 
largely  for  the  purpose  of  public  improvements  in 
what  is  now  both  States,  came  to  the  front  as  a  mat- 
ter for  political  disposition.  A  movement  was  inau- 
gurated, under  the  leadership  of  General  William 
Mahone,  for  a  readjustment  of  the  debt  on  a  basis 
which  should  compel  the  contribution  by  West  Vir- 
ginia of  its  proportionate  part.  A  wide  difference  of 
opinion  sprung  up  in  the  older  State  as  to  its  obliga- 
tion and  ability  to  pay  the  whole  debt,  and  resulted 
in  the  disorganization  of  the  dominant  democratic 
party,  and  the  birth  of  a  new  party  known  as  ''Re- 
adjuster."  For  several  years  the  question  was  the 
subject  of  bitter  political  contest  on  the  hustings  and 
at  the  ballot-box,  with  the  State  and  Federal  Courts 
taking  turns  at  attempting  its  legal  decision.  The 
Mahone  party  for  a  time  were  successful;  and  the 
democracy  was  dislodged  from  power.  Colonel  Wil- 
liam E.  Cameron,  the  Readjuster  candidate  for  Gov- 
ernor, was  elected  to  that  office  over  Major  John  W. 


246      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Daniel;  and  Mahone  and  Riddleberger  were  chosen 
by  the  Readjuster  legislature,  the  United  States 
Senators. 

Curry  stood  with  the  Debt-payers.  He  believed 
that  as  Virginia  had  contracted  the  debt,  and  had  got 
value  for  the  bonds,  which  had  been  expended  for 
beneficent  public  uses,  both  a  legal  and  a  moral  obli- 
gation existed  for  their  payment  in  full,  in  spite  of 
the  State's  great  poverty  and  of  the  further  fact  that 
the  debt  was  owned  almost  altogether  abroad.  He 
therefore  favored,  as  against  the  '^ forcible  readjust- 
ment" advocated  by  Mahone's  followers,  such  a  set- 
tlement with  the  creditors  as  should  be  satisfactory 
to  them  and  should  preserve  the  Commonwealth's 
ancient  and  untarnished  financial  honor.  In  Janu- 
ary, 1878,  he  received  a  request  in  writing,  signed  by 
many  of  the  most  eminent  ''debt-paying"  democrats 
of  Richmond,  including  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
Bishop  Doggett,  Drs.  Jeter  and  Hoge,  and  Judge 
Meredith,  to  address  the  people  on  the  momentous 
subject  of  the  State  debt.  In  response  to  the  invita- 
tion, a  week  after  its  reception  he  spoke,  with  a  dis- 
cernment that  penetrated  at  once  the  core  of  the 
issue,  and  with  his  characteristic  political  courage, 
upon  the  subject  of  ''Laws  and  Morals"  as  bearing 
upon  the  question  at  stake.  His  address  was  deliv- 
ered in  Mozart  Hall,  a  meeting-place  in  Richmond 
whose  name  became  famous  during  the  great  politi- 
cal struggle  by  reason  of  its  association  with  various 
gatherings  of  the  two  discordant  and  excited  parties. 
A  large  audience  greeted  with  tremendous  applause 
his  speech  of  an  hour  and  a  quarter,  in  which  he  ad- 
vocated his  side  of  the  question  with  unusual  power. 
He  records  with  pardonable  pride  the  fact  that  no 


POLITICS    AND   PEINCIPLES        247 

address  which  he  ever  deUvered  received  more  ap- 
probation and  commendation  than  did  this  one;  and 
his  spirit  so  warmed  to  the  contest,  that  it  was  not  long 
before  he  was  in  the  thick  of  it,  debating  the  subject 
with  speakers  on  the  other  side,  or  deUvering  ad- 
dresses in  very  many  sections  of  the  State.  Success, 
pronounced  though  temporary,  perched  upon  the 
banners  of  his  adversaries;  and  it  was  only  after  a 
long  period  of  political  acrimony  and  bad  feeling, 
and  a  bitter  struggle  through  all  the  courts,  that  the 
matter  was  brought  to  a  final  conclusion  as  a  political 
issue. 

But  politics,  as  has  been  said,  in  spite  of  his  long 
experience  in  the  political  forum,  had  now  come  to  be 
of  secondary  consideration  with  him.  Without  any 
recantation  of  his  old  beliefs,  but  with  a  steady  ad- 
herence to  those  which  the  issue  of  war  left  to  him 
intact  and  permissible, — and  all  the  while  with  a 
patriotic  acceptance  of  later  conditions, — he  had 
long  since  set  his  face  to  a  hopeful  sunrise,  and  was 
filled  with  a  spirit  of  determination  to  do  his  best 
for  the  people  among  whom  he  dwelt.  Under  date 
of  November  28,  1878,  he  writes  in  his  diary: — 

I  attended  Thanksgiving  meeting  at  the  Second  Church, 
and  spoke.  The  South  has  never  observed  these  days, 
from  a  prejudice  against  their  supposed  New  England 
origin.    I  mentioned  as  cause  for  thanks: 

1.  Good  crops. 

2.  Arrest  of  yellow-fever  scourge  and  the  Northern  aid. 

3.  Abolition  of  slavery. 

4.  Divorcement  of  government  from  religion. 

5.  Constitutional  Republic. 

6.  Peace,  and  freedom  from  entangling  alliances;  and 
spoke  of  the  future  with  an  honest,  intelligent  and  Chris- 
tian people. 


248      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Still  holding,  as  so  many  of  his  Southern  com- 
patriots had  held,  to  the  constitutional  interpreta- 
tion of  government,  ^  the  righteousness  of  State 
rights,  and  the  unrighteousness  of  centralization  in 
the  Federal  organization, — the  one-time  ardent  seces- 
sionist recognized  secession  as  a  thing  of  the  past, 
the  earlier  advocate  of  slavery  rejoiced  that  it  had 
passed  away,  and  the  prophet  of  the  future  con- 
ceived that  the  wise  preoccupation  of  the  South 
should  be  in  education  and  industry  rather  than  in 
politics. 

Some  days  later  he  writes: — 

Met  Drs.  Cutting  and  Lathrop  in  conference  in  refer- 
ence to  holding  Institutes  for  training  and  instruction  of 
colored  Ministers.    Very  cordial  acquiescence. 

No  record  appears  among  his  journals  and  papers 
of  the  incidents  and  happenings  of  the  year  1879; 
but  in  that  year  he  was  still  busy  with  his  teaching 
and  preaching,  while  he  wrought  into  the  fabric  of 
his  political  campaigning  the  morality  of  maintain- 
ing public  obligations. 

In  1880  the  journals  reappear;  and  an  entry  in 
March  of  that  year  contains  the  notation  of  an  offer 
from  President  Hayes  of  an  appointment  on  the 
Board  of  Visitors  of  the  United  States  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point;  but  the  offer  appears  to 
have  been  declined,  as  was  a  similar  one  to  the 
Board  of  the  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  emana- 
ting from  the  same  source. 

After  another  visit  abroad,  he  returned  to  Vir- 
ginia; and  in  the  Presidential  election  of  that 
autumn  voted  for  General  Winfield  Scott  Hancock, 
the  democratic  candidate  for  President. 


CHAPTER  XV 


PEABODY   AND   HIS   TRUST 


In  1866  George  Peabody,  a  wealthy  merchant  of 
England,  who  was  by  birth  a  native  of  Massachu- 
setts, of  old  New  England  stock,  had  visited  the 
United  States,  and  had  made  a  gift  of  $2,100,000, 
which  he  increased  to  $3,500,000  in  1869,  for  the 
promotion  of  education  in  the  South.  The  first 
General  Agent  chosen  by  the  corporation  of  the 
Peabody  Fund  to  administer  its  trust,  as  has  been 
stated  in  previous  pages,  was  Dr.  Barnas  Sears. 
Dr.  Sears  died  in  July,  1880;  and  in  February,  1881, 
Curry  was  elected  his  successor  in  the  General 
Agency. 

"  Thursday,  February  3. — Telegram  from  Hon.  R.  C 
Winthrop,"  he  writes  in  his  journal,  "  and  letter  of  Pres- 
ident Hayes,  announcing  my  unanimous  election  as  Agent 
of  the  Peabody  Fund." 

Mr.  Winthrop  and  Curry  had  already  been  in 
correspondence  with  each  other  on  this  subject;  and 
under  date  of  November  3,  1880,  a  letter  had  come 
from  the  former  at  Brookline,  Massachusetts,  to 
the  latter  at  Richmond: — 

My  dear  Sir: — Your  favor  of  Sept.  30th  reached  me 
just  as  I  was  leaving  home  to  attend  our  Triennial  Church 
Convention  at  New  York.    I  only  returned  home  at  the 

249 


250      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

end  of  last  week;  and  I  am  unwilling  to  leave  it  longer  un- 
acknowledged. 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  personal  expressions,  and  for 
your  offer  of  a  welcome  to  Richmond.  I  shall  hardly  leave 
home  again  until  I  go  to  the  meeting  of  the  Trustees  at 
Washington  on  the  1st  Wednesday  of  February.  It 
would  have  been  particularly  pleasant,  and  perhaps  I  may 
say,  profitable,  for  me  to  meet  you  before  that  meeting, — 
if  we  had  come  together  casually.  But  any  concerted  in- 
terview might  cause  misunderstandings  by  others,  if  not 
by  yourself.  My  own  views  are  unchanged  since  I  wrote 
you,  and  are  not  in  the  way  of  being  changed.  But  I  must 
keep  myself  open  to  conviction,  until  I  have  had  a  full  and 
free  consultation  with  my  associate  Trustees.  Meantime 
I  hope  and  trust  that  nothing  of  sectional  feeling  will  get 
into  our  Board.  We  have  escaped  it  so  far.  But  yester- 
day's results  prove  that  the  air  is  saturated  with  prej- 
udice,— on  both  sides,  I  fear.  I  have  purposely  avoided 
all  active  participation  in  political  strife  since  Mr.  Pea- 
body  charged  me  with  presiding  over  this  Southern  Trust. 
I  inclose  the  only  expression  of  opinion  which  I  ventured 
on  during  the  campaign;  and  that  was  forced  from  me  by 
an  unauthorized  use  of  my  name.  But  it  was  prophetic  of 
the  result.  Solid  Souths  and  Solids  Norths  have  been 
plainly  arrayed  against  each  other,  and  the  issue  has  been 
very  much  what  I  anticipated.  A  good  Providence  pre- 
sides over  Nations  as  well  as  over  individuals;  and  I  will 
not  question  that  all  will  be  for  the  best  in  the  end.  But  I 
yearn  for  an  era  of  good  feeling,  and  wish  that  all  the  old 
parties  could  be  merged  into  a  grand  union  of  patriots. 

Mr.  Evarts  has  just  sent  for  my  files  the  letter  of  Dr. 
Cutting,  which  you  sent  him.  I  shall  take  it,  with  all  the 
other  testimonials,  to  Washington. 

BeUeve  me,  Dear  Sir, 

Very  truly,  yours, 

ROBT.    C.    WiNTHROP. 

Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry. 


PEABODY   AND    HIS    TRUST        251 

Mr.  Winthrop,  in  his  telegram  announcing  the 
new  appointment,  had  requested  Curry's  presence 
in  Washington,  where  the  Board  was  in  session; 
and  accordingly  on  the  day  following  that  of  its 
receipt,  he  went  to  the  Capitol. 

Friday  4. — To  Riggs  Hotel.  At  11  met  Peabody  Board 
of  Trustees,  who  received  me  cordially. 

To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives. 

Dined  with  the  Peabody  Trustees  at  Secretary  Evarts'. 

Other  details  of  his  appointment  are  recorded  in 
an  additional  entry: — 

In  acknowledgment  of  the  high  honor  sought  by  many 
worthy  applicants,  I  expressed  my  sincere  thanks,  and  my 
determination  to  give  my  best  power  to  carrying  out  the 
past  policy,  with  which  I  was  familiar.  Gen.  Henry  R. 
Jackson,  a  Trustee  from  Georgia,  informed  me  that  Gen. 
Grant  made  the  motion  for  my  election,  jocularly  remark- 
ing that  the  nomination  was  fit  to  be  made,  notwithstand- 
ing the  gentleman  was  not  from  Ohio. 

Curry's  acceptance  of  the  position  of  General 
Agent  of  the  Peabody  Fund  necessitated  the  sur- 
render of  his  duties  as  Professor  in  Richmond  Col- 
lege. He  accordingly  resigned  at  once;  and  at  the 
close  of  the  session  in  June  was  made  a  Trustee  of 
the  College,  and  this  office  he  continued  to  hold  for 
fifteen  or  twenty  years,  during  a  large  part  of  which 
time  he  was  President  of  the  Board. 

To  the  discharge  of  his  duties  as  Agent  of  the 
Peabody  Fund  Curry  brought  the  varied  experience 
of  a  busy  and  already  distinguished  career,  the 
enthusiasm  which  remained  a  peculiar  character- 
istic of  his  mind  throughout  his  life,  and  the  am- 
bition to  put  aside  the  losses  of  the  past  in  the 


252      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

endeavor  of  achievement  for  the  future.  There 
were  very  many  eminent  scholars  and  educators 
who  either  made  direct  application  to  succeed  Dr. 
Sears  in  the  position,  or  whose  names  were  presented 
by  their  friends  and  admirers;  but  both  Mr.  Win- 
throp,  the  President  of  the  great  Trust,  and  Dr. 
Sears,  its  accomplished  General  Agent,  had  long 
before  the  latter's  death  fixed  upon  Curry  as  Sears' 
successor.  In  their  disinterested  judgment  his  char- 
acter and  capacity  and  catholic  spirit  conspicuously 
marked  him  as  the  man  for  the  place;  and  in  their 
view  the  members  of  the  Board  concurred  with  a 
unanimity  that  was  without  hesitation. 

His  association  with  both  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Dr. 
Sears  had  already  informed  them  of  his  fitness,  and 
had  prepared  him  to  take  up  and  develop  the  work 
on  the  lines  of  its  successful  foundation  and  former 
conduct.  His  qualifications  were  all  accentuated  by 
the  facts  of  his  Southern  birth,  association,  and 
training;  and  were  calculated  to  appeal  to  the  con- 
fidence and  to  arouse  the  favorable  expectations 
of  both  North  and  South. 

Dr.  Sears,  with  his  eye  long  upon  him  as  the  man 
of  all  men  to  take  up  the  dropped  thread  of  his  own 
ended  work,  had  written  to  him  in  February,  1880 : — 

We  shall  be  more  and  more  interested  in  the  legislation 
of  the  several  States.  We  come  directly  in  contact  with 
legislative  bodies  in  arranging  for  normal  schools.  I  would 
not  be  surprised  if  when  you  come  to  the  front  (as  I  confi- 
dently expect  you  will),  you  shall  find  yourself  specially 
in  this  congenial  atmosphere.  I  am  sure  a  great  work  is 
before  you.  I  do  not  regret  being  a  pioneer.  I  only  hope 
the  pioneer  work  will  be  well  done.  I  want  no  higher 
honor.    I  could  have  had  no  higher  joy.         , 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST        253 

It  would  have  taken  doubtless  a  less  discerning 
mind  than  Curry's  to  interpret  the  suggestions  of 
such  communications  as  this;  and  he  responded  to 
them  with  a  study  of  the  Trustees'  aims  and  plans. 
As  early  as  1873,  he  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
Dr.  Sears,  who  wrote  to  Mr.  Winthrop  in  that  year 
that  he  knew  a  man  ''at  that  moment  who  was 
abundantly  qualified  and  admirably  adapted"  for 
the  duties  of  the  General  Agency,  "if  anything 
should  happen"  to  him;  and  in  a  later  letter  in  the 
same  year  he  mentions  Curry's  name  as  that  of  the 
man  of  whom  he  had  written.  In  a  letter  of  Sep- 
tember 7,  1877,  he  says: — 

Speaking  of  our  successors,  I  would  say,  I  have  recently 
had  Dr.  Curry  with  me,  and  went  over  with  him  all  my 
plans  and  doings.  I  am  more  and  more  satisfied  that  he  is 
our  man;  he  is  so  many-sided,  so  clear  in  his  views,  so  judi- 
cious, and  knows  so  well  how  to  deal  with  all  classes  of  men. 
His  whole  being  is  wrapped  up  in  general  education,  and 
he  is  the  best  lecturer  or  speaker  on  the  subject  in  all  the 
South.  He  is  in  perfect  accord  with  us  on  all  points.  If  I 
can  be  the  means  of  securing  him  for  future  General  Agent, 
I  think  it  will  be  the  best  thing  I  ever  did  for  the  Trustees. 

And  in  April,  1879,  he  writes  again  to  Mr.  Win- 
throp : — 

I  am  trying  to  put  things  in  good  order  for  my  successor. 
I  keep  Dr.  C.  informed  of  all  I  do.  He  understands  well 
that  I  have  no  authority,  though  he  knows  my  opinion  of 
his  fitness  for  the  office. 

Winthrop  shared  heartily  in  Sears'  views  of  Curry; 
and  when  the  time  arrived  for  the  election,  it  was 
only  natural  that  he  should  have  been  chosen  by 


254      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

the  Board  with  the  unanimity  which  his  support 
by  such  authority  demanded. 

At  the  time  of  Curry's  election,  the  Peabody 
benefaction  had  been  in  existence  for  fourteen  years. 
The  instrument  creating  it  bears  date  of  February 
7, 1867;  and  by  its  provisions  sixteen  men  of  national 
reputation,  representing  in  their  most  intimate  local 
attachments  the  North,  East,  South  and  Middle 
West,  were  made  Trustees  of  the  Fund,  with  power 
to  perpetuate  their  number,  for  its  efficient  and 
beneficent  administration.  The  roster  of  its  Trus- 
teeship as  constituted  by  Mr.  Peabody  contained 
the  names  of  many  who  were  illustrious,  among  all 
who  were  distinguished.  They  were  Robert  C. 
Winthrop  of  Massachusetts,  Hamilton  Fish  of  New 
York,  Bishop  Charles  P.  Mcllwaine  of  Ohio,  General 
Ulysses  S.  Grant,  Admiral  D.  C.  Farragut,  William 
C.  Rives  of  Virginia,  John  H.  Clifford  of  Massachu- 
setts, William  Aiken  of  South  Carolina,  William  M. 
Evarts  of  New  York,  William  A.  Graham  of  North 
Carolina,  Charles  Macalester  of  Pennsylvania, 
George  Wetmore  of  New  York,  Edward  A.  Bradford 
of  Louisiana,  George  N.  Eaton  of  Maryland,  and 
George  Peabody  Russell  of  Massachusetts. 

It  was  the  purpose  of  Mr.  Peabody  that  his  gift 
should  be  employed  to  meet  "the  educational  needs 
of  those  portions  of  our  beloved  and  common  country 
which  have  suffered  from  the  destructive  ravages, 
and  the  not  less  disastrous  consequences,  of  civil 
war";  which  was  an  euphemistic  statement  of  great 
delicacy  whose  meaning  pointed  to  the  battle- 
ravaged  and  impoverished  States  of  the  late  Southern 
Confederacy. 

On  March  14,  1867,  Dr.  Barnas  Sears,  the  Presi- 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TEUST         255 

dent  of  Brown  University  at  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  upon  the  soHcitation  of  Mr.  Winthrop,  the 
chairman  of  the  Peabody  Board,  submitted  to  the 
Trustees  a  letter,  in  which  he  outlined  his  views  as 
to  the  best  methods  of  carrying  out  Mr.  Peabody's 
purposes, — a  letter  which  Sears  had  read  to  Curry, 
under  the  oaks  at  Staunton,  as  related  in  an 
earlier  chapter.  Five  days  after  the  submission 
of  this  letter  by  Dr.  Sears  to  the  Board,  the 
Board  approved  its  suggestions;  and  with  a  com- 
mon impulse  determined  that  the  author  of  the 
plan  which  it  proposed  was  the  proper  man  to  put 
it  into  effective  operation.  Dr.  Sears  was  thereupon 
elected  the  first  General  Agent  of  the  Fund.  He 
had  studied  in  Germany  after  graduating  from 
Brown  University,  and  had  bee;i  successively  a  Pro- 
fessor in  the  Newton  Theological  Seminary,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Education, 
and  President  of  Brown  University;  and  he  brought 
to  the  work,  upon  which  he  entered,  and  which  he 
continued  during  his  tenm-e  of  the  office  to  conduct 
with  great  energy  and  extraordinary  tact  and 
diplomacy,  a  varied  wealth  of  educational  and  pro- 
fessional experience.  His  noble  and  disinterested 
career  as  General  Agent,  in  which  he  labored  with 
unvarying  patience  and  good  temper,  and  with  a 
most  admirable  willingness  to  modify  and  adapt 
opinions  to  developed  circumstances,  is  deserving  of 
unqualified  praise  in  the  history  of  education  in 
America.  He  stimulated,  with  intelligence  and  in- 
creasing success,  State  aid  to  public  education;  he 
sought  to  develop  a  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
general  education;  and  he  was  efficient  in  aiding  to 
put  into  the  organic  and  statute  laws  of  a  number 


256      J.  L.  M.  OUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

of  the  Southern  States  provision  for  the  establish- 
ment of  free  public  schools.  It  was  due  in  no  in- 
significant measure  to  the  energies  and  labors  of  the 
first  Agent  of  the  Peabody  Fund,  that  at  the  time  of 
his  death  in  1880,  all  of  the  eleven  States  of  the  South 
which  had  constituted  the  Confederacy,  and  were 
the  first  and  chief  beneficiaries  of  Mr.  Peabody's 
endowment,  had  established  public-school  systems 
at  least  on  paper,  and  were  moving  onward  to  their 
larger  development  in  response  to  the  educational 
evolution  of  a  new  economic  and  social  condition. 

"In  each  of  them,"  writes  Dr.  A.  D.  Mayo,  in  the  Edu- 
cation Report  for  1903,  "model  schools  had  been  estab- 
Hshed  by  the  encouragement  of  Dr.  Sears;  teachers'  insti- 
tutes had  been  subsidized;  the  Peabody  Normal  College 
had  been  founded,  in  connection  with  what  remained  of 
Dr.  Lindsley's  University  of  Nashville;  and  in  all  practical 
ways  the  aid  of  the  Fund,  with  that  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education,  had  been  extended  to  the  authori- 
ties of  the  new  State  and  municipal  systems.  The  great- 
est step  of  all  was  the  including  of  the  more  than  1,000,000 
colored  children  and  youth  in  the  new  arrangement  in  all 
the  ex-Confederate  States." 

Yet,  if  the  work  of  the  former  General  Agent  was 
important  and  far-reaching,  that  which  lay  before 
his  successor  was  scarcely  less  so.  Measuring  liter- 
acy by  percentages  demonstrated  its  woeful  lack  in 
many  of  these  Southern  States.  These  percentages, 
taken  among  whites  and  negroes  together,  demon- 
strate that,  as  late  as  ten  years  after  the  death  of 
Dr.  Sears,  the  averages  ran,  counting  persons  ten 
years  old  and  upwards,  from  14.4  in  the  State  in 
which  there  were  fewest  negroes  to  45  in  two  of  those 
in   which   the   blacks   were   most   numerous.     The 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST        257 

Southern  section  of  the  Union  was  impoverished  in 
many  directions  almost  to  penury,  by  war,  and  by 
the  reconstruction  pillage  which  followed  it;  and 
perhaps  nowhere  was  this  more  keenly  felt  than  in 
those  States  whose  percentage  of  illiteracy  was 
highest.  The  growth  of  public  sentiment  in  favor 
of  universal  education  remained  to  be  further  devel- 
oped and  cultivated  among  a  people,  who  had  hitherto 
believed  that  the  new  educational  system  apparently 
operated  to  confer  the  largest  direct  benefit  upon 
those  who  bore  the  least  part  of  its  heavy  burden 
of  expense. 

Perhaps  no  one  could  have  appreciated  more 
keenly  than  did  Curry,  with  his  wide  experience 
and  profound  knowledge  of  conditions,  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  task  which  he  had  undertaken,  and 
the  difficulties  and  uncertainties  that  stared  him  in 
the  face  at  every  onward  step.  In  discussing  what 
Sears  had  accomplished  before  him,  Curry  writes: — 

It  would  be  a  hasty  judgment  to  conclude  that  the  work 
was  finished  during  the  period  of  his  agency,  or  that  free 
schools  had  been  established  beyond  the  possibility  of  de- 
struction. There  were  many  considerations  which  would 
have  made  it  foolish  to  relax  vigorous  efforts  for  keeping 
alive  and  strengthening  the  favoring  educational  senti- 
ment, and  making  irrepealable  what  had  been  put  upon 
the  statute  books.  .  .  .  Some  excellent  men  had  deep- 
seated  convictions,  arising  from  political,  social,  or  relig- 
ious reasons,  adverse  to  gratuitous  State  education.  The 
experiment  of  free  schools  was  not,  in  all  localities,  so  suc- 
cessful as  to  clear  away  doubts,  and  prejudices,  and  re- 
verse those  traditional  habits  of  thought  and  action  which 
the  experience  of  all  peoples  has  shown  it  to  be  difficult  for 
the  mind  to  free  itself  from.  Time  was  also  needed  to  pass 
from  private  to  public  schools,  to  quiet  or  overcome  the 


258      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

selfish  oppositions  of  those  who  engaged  in  private  teach- 
ing, and  to  transfer  education  to  the  control  of  cities  and 
States.  Prejudice,  interest  of  teachers,  sparseness  of 
population,  impatience  of  taxation,  financial  depression, 
were  serious  hindrances.  School-houses  had  to  be  built  and 
furnished,  teachers  to  be  trained,  schools  to  be  graded, 
friction  to  be  overcome,  and  an  unfamiliar  system  to  be 
accommodated  to  environments.  The  whole  work  of  in- 
troducing a  new  system  and  improved  methods  of  teach- 
ing was  beset  with  many  difficulties,  one  of  the  chiefest  of 
which  was  insufficiency  of  means  to  pay  competent  teach- 
ers and  continue  the  schools  in  session  for  longer  periods. 
(History  of  the  Peabody  Fund,  pp.  79,  80.) 

While  Curry,  in  his  administra-tion  of  the  trust 
committed  to  his  charge,  did  not  hesitate  to  enter 
into  its  smaller  details,  as  occasion  demanded,  or  op- 
portunity afforded,  he  nevertheless  made  it  his  habit 
to  work  largely  through  the  already  established 
agencies  that  had  shown  themselves  of  approved  effi- 
ciency. He  spent  much  of  his  time  in  conference 
with  teachers,  pastors,  school  superintendents,  and 
college  presidents;  he  addressed,  with  renewed  in- 
terest and  enthusiasm,  the  familiar  educational  and 
religious  assemblies,  with  which  his  recent  life  had 
brought  him  into  such  frequent  and  continued 
contact ;  he  visited  schools  and  colleges,  and  met  and 
mingled  with  their  students  and  faculties;  he  made 
himself  acquainted  by  private  contact  and  in  public 
speeches  with  State  executive  oflScials  and  legislative 
statute-makers;  he  drew  near  to  the  fountain-heads 
of  social  and  political  effectiveness;  and  directed 
their  flow  in  streams  of  irrigating  beneficence. 

Even  before  his  first  annual  report  was  presented 
to  the  Peabody  Board,  in  October,  1881,  he  had  al- 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST        259 

ready  addressed  the  legislatures  of  Texas,  Tennessee 
and  Georgia  upon  the  subject  of  Education  in  its 
varied  relations,  including  those  in  which  it  stood  to 
the  Peabody  Trust.  His  address  to  the  Tennessee 
legislature,  on  normal  instruction  and  the  Peabody 
Normal  College  at  Nashville,  was  made  on  March  18, 
1881;  and  on  the  preceding  day  he  had  made  his  first 
visit  to  the  College  in  his  new  capacity  of  General 
Agent,  to  find  the  names  of  Peabody,  Sears  and 
Curry  illuminating  the  walls  of  the  chapel,  and  to 
meet  with  an  appreciative  and  enthusiastic  greeting 
on  the  part  of  those  to  whom  he  spoke. 

Of  the  Normal  School  at  Nashville,  which,  at  this 
time  of  Curry's  visit,  had  already  been  in  existence 
for  more  than  five  years,  Dr.  Mayo  has  written  an 
account  in  the  "Education  Report"  for  1883. 

"In  due  time  the  Peabody  Fund,  under  the  expert  guid- 
ance of  Dr.  Sears,  was  brought  to  the  parting  of  the  ways 
encountered  by  every  public  school  system  everywhere. 
Even  before  the  death  of  Dr.  Sears,  which  occurred  at 
Saratoga,  New  York,  July  6,  1880,  it  was  realized  that  the 
moderate  income  from  $2,000,000,  rarely  exceeding  $100,- 
000,  must  be  concentrated  largely  on  the  training  of  teach- 
ers. In  1875  arrangements  were  made  with  the  corpora- 
tion of  the  University  of  Nashville,  Tenn.,  for  the  absorp- 
tion of  its  academical  features  and  the  use  of  its  buildings 
in  an  institution  named  the  Peabody  Normal  College. 
With  no  help  from  the  State,  the  school  was  opened  on 
December  1,  1875,  in  one  room,  with  thirteen  female 
pupils,  under  the  Presidency  of  Dr.  Eben  S.  Stearns  of 
Massachusetts.  The  trustees  established  scholarships 
for  the  benefit  of  all  the  ex-Confederate  States  and  West 
Virginia  worth  $200  a  year  for  two  successive  years,  the 
number  limited  to  the  delegation  in  Congress  of  each 
State.    The  result  was  that  during  the  twenty-one  years, 


260      J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

1876-1897,  twelve  States  received  $383,584.10  in  Peabody 
scholarships.  A  crisis  in  the  finances  of  the  College  raised 
the  question  of  its  removal  to  Georgia  in  1880;  but  in  the 
spring  of  1881  the  city  of  Nashville  and  the  State  of  Ten- 
nessee came  to  the  rescue."  (p.  536.) 

The  annual  appropriation  for  the  College,  made  by 
the  legislature  of  Tennessee  in  1881,  was  $10,000; 
but  it  was  coupled  with  such  conditions  that  only 
one-half  of  that  amount  was  actually  realized.  In 
1883  the  State,  acceding  to  a  proposition  of  the  Pea- 
body  Trustees,  made  the  $10,000  an  annual  appro- 
priation, unqualified  by  other  conditions  or  encum- 
brances; and  in  1891  the  amount  was  increased  to 
$15,000  per  annum.  Dr.  Stearns,  the  first  President 
of  the  College,  died  in  1887,  and  was  succeeded  in  the 
Presidency  by  Dr.  William  H.  Payne,  who  had  been 
Professor  of  the  Art  and  Science  of  Teaching  in  the 
University  of  Michigan.  Dr.  Payne's  election  and 
acceptance  of  the  office  were  brought  about  by  the 
influences  of  Curry,  who  was  at  that  time  at  home  in 
America,  on  a  leave  of  absence  from  his  post  as 
United  States  Minister  to  Madrid.  Dr.  Payne  held 
the  office  until  1901,  when  he  resigned;  and  in  his 
place  the  Hon.  James  D.  Porter,  a  former  governor 
of  Tennessee,  and  a  staunch  and  well-known  friend 
of  the  College,  was  elected. 

It  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  while  the 
policy  of  establishing  and  encouraging  normal 
schools  had  the  favor  of  the  Peabody  Board  from  the 
beginning,  this  policy  was  carefully  and  conserva- 
tively exercised,  until  the  several  States  had  all  been 
committed  thoroughly  to  the  more  elementary  prin- 
ciple of  organizing  public  free  schools,  and  establishing 
them  upon  a  permanent  basis  and  progressive  system. 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST        261 

On  Wednesday,  October  5,  1881,  the  Peabody 
Board  of  Trustees  assembled  in  annual  meeting  at  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  in  New  York  City.  It  was  their 
twentieth  assembling;  and  there  were  present  Mr. 
Winthrop,  the  chairman,  and  Messrs.  Fish,  Aiken, 
Evarts,  Wetmore,  Stuart,  Barnes,  Whipple,  Jackson, 
Hayes,  Manning  and  Lyman.  Curry  submitted  to 
the  Board  his  first  annual  report,  which  in  the  printed 
records  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Peabody  Education 
Fund  occupies  thirty-one  octavo  pages. 

Appropriately  and  generously,  the  General  Agent 
began  his  report  with  a  tribute  to  his  predecessor, 
and  a  review  of  the  work  that  he  had  accomplished. 

"To  succeed  one  so  competent,"  he  writes,  "was  an 
embarrassment  and  a  stimulus,  exciting  fears  and  giving 
encouragement.  To  walk  in  his  footsteps  was  an  impossi- 
bility; to  profit  by  his  almost  unerring  wisdom  and  sagac- 
ity has  been  my  daily  experience.  No  one  can  study  the 
work  of  Dr.  Sears,  as  I  have  had  occasion  to  do,  without 
being  filled  with  wonder  and  admiration  at  his  adapted- 
ness  to  the  difficult  and  delicate  duties  he  had  to  discharge. 
.  .  .  The  best  eulogy  of  Dr.  Sears  is  that  he  met  all  the 
requirements." 

The  Proceedings  of  the  Peabody  Education  Fund 
have  been  published  in  a  series  of  volumes;  and  Curry 
has  left  behind  him  a  ''History  of  the  Peabody 
Fund,"  in  which  his  association  with  the  Trust  is 
dealt  with  at  length.  It  would  therefore  be  a  work 
of  supererogation  to  dwell  at  length  in  these  pages 
upon  what  has  been  more  fully  and  better  presented 
elsewhere.  But  in  order  to  keep  before  the  mind  of 
the  reader  Curry's  figure  and  life  and  mental  attitude 
towards  what  had  come  to  engage  his  best  energies 
and  most  eager  efforts,  some  passages  from  this  first 


262     J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

report  of  his  may  be  appropriately  quoted  here. 
After  further  comment  upon  the  character  of  Dr. 
Sears  and  upon  the  value  of  his  services,  Curry  pro- 
ceeds to  point  out  the  need  of  a  constant  and  contin- 
ued vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  Board,  that  no  step 
gained  might  be  lost,  and  that  other  and  pressing 
demands  might  be  properly  met.  With  a  yet  unas- 
sured confidence  in  the  ultimate  establishment  of  a 
fixed  public  opinion  in  behalf  of  general  education, 
and  with  a  large  experience  in  dealing  with  legisla- 
tive bodies,  he  felt  it  uncertain  to  rely  alone  upon  the 
statute-books  for  the  systems  of  public  instruction, 
and  unsafe  to  relax  any  vigilance  or  omit  any  use  of 
energetic  effort.  "Nulla  vestigia  retrorsum;"  '^Vigi- 
lantihus,  non  dormientibus,"  seemed  to  be  the  charts 
by  which  he  sought  to  direct  his  sails  over  a  yet  tem- 
pestuous and  uncertain  sea. 

"Free  schools,"  he  declares,  "have  a  ceaseless  enemy  in 
the  illiteracy  of  the  masses.  Ignorance  does  not  feel  its 
needs.  Enlightenment  must  come  from  without.  The 
uneducated  do  not  appreciate  the  import  and  value  of 
education.  When  to  fearful  illiteracy  there  are  superadded 
changed  social  conditions,  remodelling  of  laws  and  consti- 
tutions, and  general  pecuniary  prostration  at  the  South, 
there  will  be  apparent  and  imperative  need  for  money  that 
State  and  local  taxes  and  ecclesiastical  and  private  bene- 
factions cannot  supply." 

These  statements  were  truisms,  so  potent  in  them- 
selves, and  so  well  known  to  the  Trustees,  as  to  seem 
to  require  no  reiteration.  And  yet  it  was  as  abso- 
lutely a  necessity  for  Curry  himself,  and  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Board,  to  carry  them  constantly  in  their 
view,  as  it  is  for  the  mariner  to  watch  the  veering  of 
his  compass'  needle  in  sailing  his  charted  ways. 


PEABODY   AND    HIS    TRUST        263 

"Since  my  appointment,"  he  continues,  "I  have  visited 
all  the  States  included  in  our  work,  except  Florida  and 
West  Virginia,  and  by  special  request  have  made  addresses 
before  the  legislatures  of  Texas,  Tennessee  and  Georgia. 
These  visits  have  given  me  an  insight  into  the  workings  of 
school  systems,  and  a  personal  acquaintance  with  school 
and  other  public  officers,  which  must  be  of  much  value. 
As  your  comprehensive  plans  are  carried  on  under  State 
auspices,  mere  office  work  will  not  enable  me  to  accom- 
plish them.  Besides  the  need  of  awakening  and  keeping 
alive  the  public  mind  on  the  general  subject  of  free  educa- 
tion, there  must  be  conferences  with  law-makers  and  school 
officers,  and  the  stimulation  of  such  legislative  action  as 
will  consummate  and  perfect  the  widely  beneficent  ends 
you  have  had  so  steadily  in  view. 

"Although,  for  convenience,  the  late  avowal  of  the  Trus- 
tees as  to  their  future  purpose  has  been  termed  a  '  new  de- 
parture,' yet  from  the  first  consultations  two  grand  objects 
were  determined  upon.  'The  urgent  and  pressing  physi- 
cal needs  of  an  almost  impoverished  people'  precluding 
them  '  from  making,  by  unaided  efforts,  such  advances  in 
education  as  were  desirable,  the  Trustees  decided  the  es- 
tablishment of  public  schools  and  the  training  of  public 
school  teachers  to  be  the  wisest  disposition  of  the  Fund. 
Free  school  education  and  Normal  Schools  were  the  ob- 
jective points,  and  these,  looking  to  permanent  results, 
have  had  the  support  of  the  Trustees  throughout  the  en- 
tire history  of  the  Trust.  Instead  of  distributing  the  in- 
come of  the  Fund  promiscuously,  aid  has  been  concen- 
trated on  a  few  central  schools  of  a  high  order,  to  serve  as 
examples  and  incentives,  rather  than  on  a  larger  number 
of  inferior  or  less  influential  schools.  During  the  present 
year  help  has  been  given  to  a  few  schools,  and  has  been 
promised  to  a  few  others,  in  communities  where  insuffi- 
cient State  revenues  have  been  generously  supplemented 
by  local  taxation. 

"The  instruction  of  the  Board  to  apply  the  greater  por- 


264     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

tion  of  the  income  of  the  Fund  hereafter  to  the  education 
of  teachers  for  the  public  schools  has  met  with  general  and 
decided  approval. 

" .  .  .  Special  aid  has  been  given  to  Teachers'  Insti- 
tutes, defined  by  some  one  as '  locomotive  Normal  Schools. ' 
.  .  .  Normal  Schools,  as  having  continuous  life  and 
influence,  and  coming  more  literally  within  the  purview 
of  the  instruction  of  the  Trustees,  have  had  much  thought 
and  labor.  Permanent  arrangements  are  needed  to  train 
the  multitudes  of  teachers  which  our  school  systems  de- 
mand. The  short-lived  Institutes  are  not  attended  by  all, 
or  by  the  most  incompetent,  and  cannot  give  thorough 
professional  discipline  and  training.  Not  a  few  summer 
months,  but  toilsome  years,  are  indispensable  to  teacher- 
training. 

"The  Normal  College  at  Nashville  has  been  regarded 
by  the  Trustees  with  peculiar  favor,  the  purpose  being  to 
build  up  an  institution  of  very  high  order,  and  a  fit  monu- 
ment of  the  benefaction  of  Mr.  Peabody.  For  years  the 
College  was  sustained  largely  by  their  donations,  efforts  to 
secure  direct  State  aid  and  co-operation  being  fruitless. 
The  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Nashville  gave  what  aid 
they  could  with  their  limited  means,  but  there  was  an  in- 
creasing disappointment  at  the  want  of  co-operation  on 
the  part  of  the  State.  You  were,  therefore,  constrained  to 
consider  seriously  the  withdrawal  of  your  donation,  and 
the  giving  of  help  to  a  State  which  would  show  by  ade- 
quate pecuniary  aid  a  higher  appreciation  of  a  Normal 
College.  It  is  needless  to  recapitulate  the  protracted  and 
embarrassing  negotiations  which  oppressed  the  mind  and 
impaired  the  health  of  the  late  General  Agent.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  such  assurance  and  guaranties  of  permanent  as- 
sistance were  obtained  as  to  convince  Dr.  Sears  that  the 
entire  or  chief  burden  of  sustaining  the  College  would  not 
hereafter  fall  on  the  Peabody  Fund.  The  question  of  with- 
drawing aid  from  the  College  was  therefore  cheerfully 
abandoned."    . 


PEABODY   AND   HIS   TRUST        265 

The  report  then  states  the  agreement  which  had 
been  reached  during  the  year,  by  which  aid,  amount- 
ing to  several  thousand  dollars  annually,  was  guar- 
anteed by  the  State  of  Tennessee  to  the  Nashville 
Normal  College;  and  indicates  the  strong  probabil- 
ity, which  later  became  a  reality,  that  more  liberal 
appropriations  would  soon  follow.  This  statement  is 
succeeded  by  a  more  particular  and  detailed  account 
of  the  work  that  was  then  in  progress,  in  connection 
with  the  Fund,  in  each  of  the  States  of  West  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Mississippi, 
Tennessee,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Texas;  and  the 
report  closes  with  a  table,  showing  what  portions  of 
the  total  expenditure  of  $50,375.00,  made  during  the 
year,  had  been  applied  respectively  to  Teachers'  In- 
stitutes, permanent  schools,  Nashville  scholarships, 
and  educational  journals  in  the  several  States. 

This  first  report  of  the  new  General  Agent  made, 
as  was  to  have  been  expected,  a  very  favorable  im- 
pression upon  the  Trustees  of  the  Fund;  and  is  set 
out  here,  in  its  somewhat  dry  details,  both  as  show- 
ing the  conditions  surrounding  Curry's  undertaking, 
and  as  illustrating  his  comprehensive  and  immedi- 
ate grasp  of  the  situation.  After  hearing  it  read, 
there  could  remain  no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Board,  if  such  a  doubt  had  even  for  a  mo- 
ment existed,  that  they  had  found  the  right  man  for 
the  place. 

His  diary  for  the  year,  1881,  under  date  of  October 
5,  contains  the  simple  entry : — 

Trustees  met.  All  present  except  Waite,  Chief  Justice, 
and  Mr.  Russell, 

Read  my  first  Report.   Much  complimented. 


266      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

During  the  succeeding  official  year  Curry  contin- 
ued his  work  upon  the  hues  and  according  to  the 
methods  theretofore  pursued,  and  with  a  steady  and 
glowing  enthusiasm  and  an  ever  unabated  industry. 
He  attended  the  local  Institutes,  visited  schools  and 
colleges,  made  speeches  at  educational  meetings,  and 
availed  himself  of  whatever  opportunities  offered 
themselves  to  his  alert  and  eager  intelligence  of  ad- 
vancing his  cause.  He  paid  especial  attention,  too,  to 
arousing  the  interest  of  public  men  and  State  officials 
in  his  work,  and  before  the  anniversary  of  his  first 
annual  report  came  around  again,  he  had  made  ad- 
dresses in  behalf  of  State  aid  to  education  before  the 
legislatures  of  West  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  Geor- 
gia, Mississippi  and  Texas. 

The  progress  of  his  work,  and  the  misconceptions 
of  many  as  to  its  significance,  may  be  read  in  an  ex- 
tract from  his  second  Report,  made  to  the  Trustees 
October  4,  1882:— 

Although  the  administration  of  the  Peabody  Fund  has 
been  in  operation  since  1867,  and  twenty  full  reports  have 
been  published  and  widely  distributed,  it  affords  matter 
for  surprise  that  inaccurate  notions  are  entertained  as  to 
the  intention  of  Mr.  Peabody,  the  amount  of  the  Fund, 
and  the  oft-declared  policy  of  the  Trustees.  Application 
for  aid  for  the  most  diverse  objects — educational,  religious, 
charitable,  personal — are  constantly  made.  It  seems  al- 
most impossible  to  eradicate  two  misapprehensions;  first, 
that  the  Fund  was  intended  as  a  charity  for  the  poor;  and 
secondly,  that  all  schools,  complying  with  the  prescribed 
conditions  precedent,  are  entitled  to  promote  assistance. 
One  of  the  most  urgent  pleas  for  help  is  that  the  commu- 
nity is  poor.  Much  as  this  appeal  may  excite  personal  sym- 
pathy, the  Fund  is  not  eleemosynary,  but  has  a  distinct 
and  well-defined  object.    As  the  income  of  the  Fund  is 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST         267 

limited,  only  a  few  schools  can  be  aided;  and  the  Trustees, 
in  accordance  with  the  wish  of  Mr.  Peabody,  by  judicious 
selections  of  schools  and  localities,  and  by  appropriations 
limited  as  to  amount  and  time,  have  sedulously  striven  to 
aid  in  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  system  of  "free 
schools  for  the  whole  people."  The  prime  purpose  of 
aiding  nascent  school-systems  of  the  Southern  States,  so  as 
to  enable  them  to  attain  to  permanency  and  efficiency,  has 
been  kept  steadily  in  view.  Thus  to  stimulate  communi- 
ties and  States  has  required  wisdom,  patience,  firmness, 
acquaintance  with  men  and  educational  systems,  large 
correspondence  and  much  travel. 

Another  error,  not  so  prevalent,  is  that  the  Fund  is  for 
the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  white  race.  By  carefully 
chosen  language,  both  races  were  included  in  the  benefac- 
tion; and  the  late  and  the  present  General  Agent  have  es- 
teemed it  a  patriotic  and  Christian  privilege  to  carry  out 
the  wishes  of  the  Founder  of  the  Trust  and  of  the  Trus- 
tees, that  no  discrimination  betwixt  races  should  be  made 
beyond  what  a  wise  administration  required.  In  every 
State  aid  is  given  to  the  colored  race  and  the  General 
Agent  has  frequently  besought  and  obtained  from  State 
Superintendents  special  efforts  in  behalf  of  colored  schools 
and  colored  teachers. 

This  statement  of  Curry's  in  regard  to  the  attitude 
of  the  Southern  States  towards  the  education  of  the 
negroes  carries  with  it  a  significance,  which  it  doubt- 
less gave  him  pleasure  to  indicate.  All  of  these 
States,  by  the  time  at  which  he  wrote,  had  recovered 
themselves  from  the  political  and  social  chaos  into 
which  they  had  been  plunged  by  the  War  and  by 
Reconstruction;  and  though  none  of  them  had 
emerged  from  the  poverty  that  had  been  thrust 
upon  them  by  these  two  equally  tragic  episodes,  they 
were   already   affording   an   example,   unparalleled. 


268      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

perhaps  in  the  history  of  the  world,  of  unselfish  pur- 
pose to  lift  up  and  elevate  by  education  a  servile  and 
untaught  race,  that  had  been  so  short  a  time  before 
but  "hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water"  among 
them. 

"One  cannot  but  contemplate  with  intense  joy,"  he 
continues,  "the  potent  agencies  which  are  at  work  to  place 
beyond  contingency  or  peril  the  free-school  systems.  If 
it  were  not  invidious,  it  would  be  pleasant  to  specify  certain 
Southern  newspapers,  which,  although  chiefly  political, 
have  given  column  after  column  to  accounts  of  Normal 
School  and  Institute  exercises,  and  to  convincing  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  free  schools.  Unusual  as  such  mention 
may  be,  it  would  be  unjust  not  to  refer  to  the  valuable 
labors  of  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo,  one  of  the  editors  of  the  'New 
England  Journal  of  Education,'  whose  addresses  in  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  have  been  stim- 
ulating and  instructive,  and  whose  ministry  of  education 
has  been  productive  of  much  good." 

Curry  then  gives  an  account  of  the  ''Slater  Fund," 
about  the  organization  and  work  of  which  President 
Hayes,  one  of  its  incorporators,  had  already  been 
seeking  his  advice. 

"On  2  March,  1882,"  he  continues  in  his  second  report, 
"John  F.  Slater  of  Norwich,  Connecticut,  gave  one  mil- 
lion of  dollars  in  trust  to  several  gentlemen,  who  have  been 
created  by  the  State  of  New  York  a  body  politic  and  cor- 
porate by  the  name  of  'The  Trustees  of  the  Slater  Fund.' 
Two  of  the  members  of  this  Board,  Ex-President  Hayes 
and  Chief  Justice  Waite,  are  among  the  corporators.  The 
general  object  of  the  trust  is  to  apply,  for  a  term  of  years, 
the  income  to  'the  uplifting  of  the  lately  emancipated 
people  of  the  Southern  States  and  their  posterity,  by  con- 
ferring on  them  the  blessings  of  a  Christian  education,'  so 
as  'to  make  them  good  men  and  good  citizens.'    While  the 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST        269 

prosecution  of  the  general  object  is  left  to  the  discretion 
and  largest  liberty  of  the  Trustees,  Mr.  Slater  indicated  as 
desirable  oV;jects  'the  training  of  teachers  from  among  the 
people  requiring  to  be  taught'  and  'the  encouragement  of 
such  institutions  as  are  most  effectually  useful  in  pro- 
moting this  training  of  teachers.'" 

That  the  Trustees  of  the  Slater  Fund  were  already 
largely  relying  on  Curry's  judgment  and  experience 
in  perfecting  their  organization  and  mapping  out 
their  work  is  indicated  by  the  letters  which  Mr. 
Hayes  had  written  him. 

"I  thank  you,"  wrote  the  ex-President,  from  Fremont, 
Ohio,  under  date  of  April  20,  1882,  "for  the  speech  and 
your  letter.  The  consolidation  of  educational  funds  has  a 
great  deal  to  recommend  it.  We  have  suffered  vastly  in 
Ohio  by  scattering  among  thirty  or  forty  colleges  funds 
which  would  have  amply  endowed  three  or  four.  But  it  is 
idle  to  criticise.  We  must  make  all  we  can  out  of  existing 
facts. 

"I  shall  want  to  confer  with  you  about  the  line  of  action 
that  is  wise  for  the  Slater  Trustees  to  take,  and  would  like 
to  know  of  your  probable  movements  for  the  next  two 
months.  If  a  charter  is  granted,  as  we  expect,  by  the  State 
of  New  York,  our  headquarters  will  be  in  the  City  of  N. 
Y.,  and  I  shall  go  there  perhaps  two  or  three  times  yearly. 

"I  shall  take  occasion  to  correct  the  misapprehension 
as  to  the  work  of  the  Peabody  Fund  among  the  colored 
people." 

And  again  Mr.  Hayes  writes  to  Curry  on  the  same 
subject: — 

Fremont,  0., 

5  July,  1882. 
My  dear  Sir: — I  send  you  herewith  the  act   incor- 
porating the  Trustees  of  the  Slater  Fund,  and  Mr.  Slater's 
letter  defining  the  Trust. 


270      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

At  the  first  meeting  held  in  New  York  in  May,  the  trus- 
tees appointed  a  Finance  Committee,  an  Executive  Com- 
mittee, consisting  of  the  President  of  the  Board,  the  Secre- 
tary, President  Oilman,  Oov.  Colquitt,  Dr.  Boyce  and 
Hon.  Wm.  E.  Dodge;  and  a  Committee  on  Rules.  Presi- 
dent Oilman  is  permanent  Secretary.  Mr.  Jessup  is  Treas- 
urer. 

The  funds  were  invested  by  the  Finance  Committee  at 
about  six  percent  interest.    The  rate  of  interest  of  the  se- 
curities taken  is  six  percent,  but  a  small  premium  was  paid. 

Inasmuch  as  the  income,  only,  can  be  expended  for  the 
purposes  of  the  Trust,  no  expenditure  will  be  made  until 
after  next  December,  when  the  first  income  will  be  avail- 
able. In  the  meantime  a  Oeneral  Agent  will  be  appointed, 
and  a  policy  and  plans  matured.  The  subject  of  a  Oeneral 
Agent  and  plans  are  before  the  Executive  Committee  for 
consideration  and  report.  The  next  meeting  of  the  Board 
will  be  in  October,  in  New  York,  at  the  time  the  Peabody 
Trustees  hold  their  meeting. 

Throughout  the  proceedings  thus  far  the  Peabody 
Trust  has  been  the  model  in  the  mind  of  Mr.  Slater,  and  of 
the  Trustees  of  his  appointment. 

No  person  has  been  fixed  upon  for  General  Agent.  I 
am  inclined  to  think  that  a  Southern  man  should  be  se- 
lected. Dr.  Haygood  and  Mr.  Orr  of  Georgia  have  been 
suggested.  Neither  is  a  candidate,  and  I  do  not  know  that 
either  would  accept.  Dr.  Steiner  of  Md.  is  in  the  same 
position.  Can  you  aid  us  with  a  confidential  suggestion? 
Indeed,  after  reading  the  trust  deed,  may  I  not  hope  for 
suggestions  from  you  on  the  whole  matter?  One  of  the 
points  which  I  deem  important  is  such  an  administration 
of  the  trust  as  will  strengthen  the  cause  of  Education  in 
the  South,  especially  for  the  Colored.  It  seems  to  me  that 
one  of  the  best  things  now  doing  by  you  with  the  Peabody 
Fund  is  the  aid  afforded  to  those  who  are  creating  a  sound 
public  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  Education  in  the 
South. 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST        271 

I  would  like  to  preserve  the  particular  copy  of  the  Slater 
trust  paper  which  I  send  you, — but  keep  it  as  long  as  you 
wish. 

Sincerely, 

R.  B.  Hayes. 
Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry, 
Richmond. 

Another  of  the  ''potent  agencies"  for  education 
of  the  South,  which  rejoiced  Curry's  heart,  and  of 
which  he  also  makes  mention  in  his  report  of  October, 
1882,  to  the  Peabody  Trustees,  is  the  endowment  of 
the  "Tulane  Administrators,"  which  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  The  Tulane  University  at  New 
Orleans. 

"Another  illustration,"  he  writes,  "of  honorable  munif- 
icence, more  local  in  its  benefits,  is  the  gift  of  Paul  Tulane, 
of  New  Jersey.  To  certain  persons,  incorporated  under 
the  name  of  '  The  Administrators  of  the  Tulane  Education 
Fund,'  Mr.  Tulane,  in  June,  1882,  executed  a  trust-deed, 
conveying  certain  real-estate,  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans, 
State  of  Louisiana,  '  for  the  promotion  and  encouragement 
of  intellectual,  moral,  and  industrial  education  among  the 
white  young  persons  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  and  for 
the  advancement  of  letters,  the  arts  and  sciences  therein. 

"Such  benefactions,  for  such  unselfish  purposes,"  com- 
ments Curry,  "are  honorable  to  our  race  and  country,  and 
their  influence  will  survive  with  increasing  strength  and 
usefulness.  Mr.  Slater  says :  '  I  am  encouraged  to  the  exe- 
cution, in  this  charitable  foundation,  of  a  long-cherished 
purpose  by  the  eminent  wisdom  and  success  that  has 
marked  the  conduct  of  the  Peabody  Education  Fund  in  a 
field  of  operation  not  remote  from  that  contemplated  by 
this  Trust.'  The  letter  of  Mr.  Tulane  furnishes  internal 
evidence,  corroborated  by  the  statement  of  the  counsel 


272     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

who  drew  the  papers,  that  the  gift  of  Mr.  Peabody  and  the 
administration  of  the  Fund  afforded  much  assistance  in 
shaping  the  terms  of  the  trust. 

"Stimulating  and  valuable  as  are  these  gifts,  the  South- 
ern States  cannot  rely  on  individual  beneficence.  Educa- 
tion is  a  civil  as  well  as  a  parental  duty.  It  is  of  the  es- 
sence of  true  manhood.  By  no  other  means  can  man  make 
the  best  of  himself  and  fulfil  his  obligations.  It  is  his  in- 
alienable birthright.  What  is  true  of  all  men  is  especially 
true  of  an  American  citizen.  General  intelligence  is  neces- 
sary to  popular  liberty,  to  the  safety  and  perpetuity  of  our 
representative  institutions." 

In  May,  1882,  Curry,  as  their  General  Agent,  pre- 
sented on  behalf  of  the  Peabody  Trustees  to  the 
United  States  Congress  a  petition,  calling  the  at- 
tention of  that  body  to  a  former  memorial  of  the 
Board,  which  had  been  presented  two  years  earlier; 
and  renewing  the  solicitation  contained  in  the 
memorial,  that  the  Federal  Government's  aid  be 
given  in  co-operation  with  the  public  school  systems 
in  the  Southern  States. 

In  October,  the  Trustees  of  the  Fund  held  their 
regular  annual  meeting  in  New  York,  to  which  Curry 
reported  satisfactory  progress  in  the  work  under  his 
charge.  He  had  visited  nearly  all  the  Southern 
States,  and  by  request  had  addressed  the  legislatures 
of  North  Carolina,  Florida,  Alabama,  Tennessee  and 
Arkansas,  in  each  of  which  States  the  movement  in 
behalf  of  general  education  had  aroused  the  interest 
of  its  public  men.  He  reported  further  at  this 
time : — 

All  the  State  Superintendents  have  been  cheerful  in 
their  co-operation  with  the  General  Agent,  and  zealous  in 
their  respective  States  for  the  Public  Schools.     It  would 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST        273 

be  ungrateful  and  unjust  not  to  make  mention  of  the  aid 
often  given  by  him  to  the  Bureau  of  Education  at  Wash- 
ington. General  Eaton,  beyond  a  technical  discharge  of 
office  work,  delights  also  to  advance  the  general  cause  by 
his  abundant  information,  wide  experience,  personal  coun- 
sel, and  eloquent  voice. 

The  year  has  been  marked  by  the  usual  assemblages  of 
educators.  The  discussions  are  taking  a  wide  scope,  and 
embracing  problems  connected  with  education  which  show 
the  increasing  importance  of  the  subject.  .  .  .  There 
is  a  growing  recognition  of  the  alliance  betwixt  industrial 
and  mental  training.  ...  In  some  of  the  States  a 
new  phase  of  the  free  school  question  is  presenting  itself. 
Kentucky  has  recently  stricken  from  her  statutes  an  un- 
wise discrimination  betwixt  the  races  in  the  disbursement 
of  school  funds;  but  in  the  flush  of  our  rejoicings  over  such 
a  triumph  of  patriotism  and  generous  self-sacrifice,  we 
find  a  disposition  elsewhere  to  adopt  what  Kentucky,  after 
trial,  has  cast  aside.  It  is  not  proper  in  this  Report  to 
mention,  much  less  to  discuss,  the  causes  which  have  cre- 
ated this  hurtful  sentiment  in  favor  of  throwing  upon  each 
race  the  burden  of  educating  the  children  of  that  race. 
Were  we  to  concede  all  that  is  claimed  as  justifying  the  dis- 
crimination, it  might  be  conclusively  replied  that  the 
confinement  of  the  school  revenues  pro  rata  to  the  race 
paying  the  taxes  is  a  measure  that  originates  in  narrow 
prejudice,  or  is  punitive  for  certain  alleged  political  of- 
fenses, and  is,  therefore,  an  unstable  and  unworthy  ground 
for  the  legislation  of  Christian  statesmen. 

Public  education  at  public  cost  has  its  best  defence  in 
the  obligation  to  preserve  national  life. 

This  attitude  of  Curry's  in  favor  of  meting  out 
equal  and  exact  justice  in  the  distribution  of  State 
funds  in  aid  of  education  to  both  whites  and  blacks 
was  one  which  he  had  assumed  long  before  his  con- 
nection with  the  Peabody  Fund,  and  had  publicly 


274      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

announced  as  early  as  1866,  in  his  speech  at  Marion, 
in  which  he  had  advised  the  people  of  the  South  to 
pay  of  their  poverty  for  the  education  of  the  dense 
mass  of  negro  ignorance  in  their  midst,  upon  which 
the  readjustment  of  a  revolutionized  society  had 
conferred  the  privileges  of  an  unintelligent  citizenship. 
The  preservation  of  the  national  life  seemed  to  him 
impossible  without  the  education  of  the  citizenship 
which  goes  to  make  up  that  life;  and  in  this  view 
there  was  no  divergence  by  him  from  the  demo- 
cratic attitude  on  the  subject  of  education,  which 
was  held  by  his  political  exemplar,  and  the  founder  of 
the  school  of  governmental  thought  to  which  he  had 
always  maintained  allegiance.  Mr.  Jefferson  had 
not  only  been  an  advocate  of  State  aid  to  higher 
education,  but  he  had  insisted  that  the  State  Uni- 
versity, in  the  properly  constructed  educational 
system,  should  be  the  capstone  of  the  common 
schools,  supported  by  local  taxation.  For  him  the 
common  school  was  an  essential  part  of  the  free 
government  of  the  individual  citizen,  whose  func- 
tions should  be: — 

(1)  To  give  to  every  citizen  the  information  he  needs 
for  the  transaction  of  his  own  business ; 

(2)  To  enable  him  to  calculate  for  himself,  and  to  express 
and  preserve  his  ideas,  his  contracts  and  accounts  in  writ- 
ing; 

(3)  To  improve,  by  reading,  his  morals  and  faculties; 

(4)  To  understand  his  duties  to  his  neighbors  and  coun- 
try, and  to  discharge  with  competence  the  functions  con- 
fided to  him  by  either; 

(5)  To  know  his  rights;  to  exercise  with  order  and  jus- 
tice those  he  retains;  to  choose  with  discretion  the  fiduci- 
ary of  those  he  delegates;  and  to  notice  their  conduct  with 
diligence,  with  candor  and  judgment. 


PEABODY   AND    HIS    TRUST        275 

(6)  And,  in  general,  to  observe  with  intelligence  and 
faithfulness  all  the  social  relations  under  which  he  shall  be 
placed. 

The  "  readjustment "  by  one  or  more  of  the 
Gulf  States  of  some  of  the  bonds  included  in  Mr. 
Peabody's  donation  was  engaging  the  attention  of 
the  Trustees  at  this  time.  In  1886  the  Peabody 
scholarships  were  withdrawn  from  those  States;  but 
in  1892  they  were  restored.  At  the  meeting  of  the 
Board  in  October,  1883,  a  memorial  was  presented, 
signed  by  Bishop  Thomas  U.  Dudley,  Dr.  W.  H. 
Whitsett,  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus,  Rabbi  A.  Moses, 
Vice-Chancellor  John  G.  Simrall,  Dr.  Basil  Manly, 
and  eighteen  others,  prominent  citizens  of  Kentucky, 
praying  that  their  State  might  also  be  included 
among  those  receiving  the  benefits  of  the  Peabody 
Fund.  The  memorial  was  referred  to  a  committee 
consisting  of  Messrs.  Waite,  Fish  and  Jackson  of  the 
Trustees,  who  in  their  report  embodied  the  following 
resolution : — 

That  this  Board  will  cordially  unite  with  the  people  of 
Kentucky  in  any  effort  that  may  be  made  to  create  an 
interest  in  favor  of  education  by  means  of  public  schools, 
and  the  General  Agent  is  requested,  if  an  opportunity 
should  be  afforded  him,  to  address  the  Legislature  on  the 
subject,  and  to  do  what  else  he  can  to  direct  attention  to 
the  importance  of  making  ample  provision  for  the  per- 
manent establishment  and  maintenance  of  such  a  system 
of  schools  in  the  State. 

This  report  was  accepted  by  the  Board;  and  on 
the  25th  of  January  following,  Curry,  by  special  in- 
vitation, appeared  before  the  Legislature  of  Kentucky 
and   delivered   an   address   along   the   lines   of   the 


276      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Peabody  Board's  resolution.  The  Legislature  soon 
afterwards  passed  a  bill  providing  for  great  improve- 
ments in  the  public  school  system;  but  the  aid  to 
the  State  on  the  part  of  the  Peabody  Board  appears 
to  have  been  little  more  than  that  of  a  tender  of 
moral  encouragement;  for  it  seems  that  no  dis- 
bursements of  money  were  ever  made  from  the  Fund 
to  education  in  Kentucky. 

Some  of  the  entries  in  Curry's  diary  about  this 
time  are  not  without  a  personal  interest.  In 
December,  1883,  Matthew  Arnold  visited  Richmond, 
and  was  hospitably  received  by  many  of  its  prom- 
inent citizens.  Curry  writes  in  his  diary  under  date 
of  the  18th  of  that  month: — 

Called  on  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold.  Heard  him  lecture  at 
night  on  "Literature  and  Science." 

And  on  the  day  following: — 

With  Mr.  Arnold  visited  two  colored  schools. 

Early  in  1884  he  writes: — 

January  30. — Called  on  George  Bancroft  at  Washing- 
ton.   Had  a  very  pleasant  interview. 

But  the  journal  is  unfortunately  silent  as  to  the 
impressions  which  were  made  on  him,  at  this  time, 
either  by  the  English  author  of  "Literature  and 
Dogma,"  or  by  the  great  American,  whose  monu- 
ment is  his  "History  of  the  United  States." 

In  April,  1884,  he  was  elected  President  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  State  Normal  College  for 
Women,  at  Farmville,  Virginia,  which  had  been 
recently  established  by  the  Virginia  Legislature,  and 
to  the  Principalship  of  which  Dr.  William  H.  Ruffner, 
whom  Curry  ranked  as  an  educator  with  Mann, 


PEABODY   AND   HIS    TRUST         277 

Sears  and  Wickersham,  was  chosen  at  the  same 
meeting.  Curry  maintained  a  deep  interest  in  this 
institution,  and  continued  President  of  its  Board 
until  October  1,  1885,  when  he  resigned  the  presi- 
dency, though  still  remaining  a  Trustee  until  April 
25,  1893. 

At  the  ensuing  October  meeting  of  the  Peabody 
Board,  he  made  his  usual  report,  which  contained  an 
interesting  paragraph  concerning  those  educational 
institutions  in  Virginia,  which  derived  aid  from  the 
Fund:— 

Hampton  Normal  and  Agricultural  Institute,  under  the 
administration  of  its  accomplished  president  (General 
S.  C.  Armstrong)  is  almost  an  anomaly  in  educational 
work.    Its  success  has  been  extraordinary.     .     .     . 

The  Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute  at  Petersburg, — 
the  instructors  of  which  are  colored, — is  well  sustained  by 
the  State,  and  closed  a  year  of  good  work.  The  Legisla- 
ture authorized  a  State  Normal  School  for  Girls,  which  has 
been  located  at  Farmville.  Litigation  embarrassed  and 
delayed  the  action  of  the  Trustees.  The  difficulties  being 
removed,  the  school  will  soon  be  opened  under  the  head- 
ship of  Hon.  W.  H.  Ruffner. 

A  Convention  of  County  Superintendents  and  four 
Teachers'  Institutes  have  been  valuable  agencies  in  stimu- 
lating and  directing  educational  energies.  One  thousand 
and  twenty-eight  teachers  attended  the  Institutes, — nearly 
double  the  number  enrolled  any  single  year  before. 

Curry's  busy  life  in  this  period  may  be  appreciated 
by  a  glimpse  at  the  varied  activities  in  which  he  was 
engaged, — activities  which  demanded  the  constant 
exercise  of  physical  no  less  than  of  mental  energies. 
First  and  foremost,  he  was  the  General  Agent  of  the 
Peabody  Fund,  and  in  the  discharge  of  that  office, 


278      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

he  had  made  out  of  every  legislative  chamber  in  the 
South,  a  new  and  very  vital  sort  of  pulpit  from  which 
to  preach  the  gospel  of  training  for  all  people,  high 
and  low,  black  and  white.  He  delivered  addresses 
during  the  year  1884  before  the  legislatures  of  Vir- 
ginia, Mississippi,  Kentucky,  Louisiana,  and  South 
Carolina;  and  he  spoke  before  a  joint  committee  of 
the  Virginia  Legislature  in  favor  of  a  State  Normal 
School,  and  to  a  House  Committee  of  the  United 
States  Congress  on  the  subject  of  Federal  aid  to 
State  education.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  Richmond  College  and  of  that  of  the 
Farmville  Woman's  College,  and  was  President  of 
both  of  these  boards,  giving  to  the  discharge  of  the 
duties  incident  to  the  positions  he  occupied  on  them 
a  full  measure  of  his  time,  energies  and  talents. 
His  services  were  constantly  in  demand,  and  scarcely 
less  constantly  given  to  attending  and  addressing 
educational  and  religious  conventions  and  assem- 
blies; and  he  filled  in  the  spare  moments  of  a  life, 
busy  to  overflowing,  with  commencement  speeches 
at  schools,  colleges  and  Universities.  The  man's 
vitality  of  mind  and  body  seems  almost  super-normal 
in  the  light  of  his  unremitting  work.  He  served  on 
the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Richmond  Woollen 
Mills ;  he  taught  a  Sunday-school  class  with  the  un- 
dimmed  and  undiminished  enthusiasm  of  his  earlier 
religious  work;  he  took  part  in  pastors'  conferences; 
he  married  couples;  he  preached  funeral  sermons; 
he  participated  in  the  work  of  committees  on  foreign 
missions,  and  for  aiding  the  advancement  of  religion 
and  education  among  the  negroes  of  the  Southern 
States.  In  fine,  he  was  preacher,  teacher,  man  of 
affairs,    politician,    lecturer,    educator   and   philan- 


PEABODY   AND   HIS   TRUST        279 

thropist  at  once;  and  in  all  the  relations  of  these 
varied  pursuits,  he  left  a  vivid  impress  of  his  per- 
sonality upon  whatever  he  touched.  Of  the  de- 
mands made  upon  his  physical  energies  some  idea 
may  be  formed  from  the  statement  that,  in  his 
widely  distributed  work  during  the  year  1884,  he 
travelled  altogether  a  distance  of  more  than  seven- 
teen thousand  miles. 

A  few  days  after  the  meeting  of  the  Peabody 
Trustees  in  October,  1884,  he  went  to  Georgia,  where 
on  the  8th  of  the  month  he  attended  the  Centennial 
meeting  of  the  Georgia  Baptist  Association  at  the 
town  of  Washington  in  that  State.  During  his  visit 
to  Washington  he  was  a  guest  at  the  hospitable  home 
of  General  Robert  Toombs,  who  had  been  a  con- 
spicuous figure  in  the  ante-bellum  discussions  of 
slavery,  state  rights  and  strict  construction;  and 
after  serving  as  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Con- 
federacy, and  as  a  general  in  the  army  of  Northern 
Virginia,  had  sought  England  as  a  place  of  refuge 
succeeding  Appomattox.  He  had  come  back  to  his 
native  land  after  a  brief  period  of  exile;  but  even 
at  the  time  of  Curry's  visit  he  was  still  ''irrecon- 
cilable" in  his  refusal  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  Federal  government. 

In  Curry's  diary  of  the  time  of  this  visit  to  Georgia, 
we  find  the  brief  exhibition  of  a  reminiscent  and 
tender  mood: — 

Saturday,  October  11. — Left  for  Lincoln  County  in  a 
buggy.    Night  at  Jesse  Cartledge's,  where  I  was  born. 

Sunday,  October  12. — Talked  to  Sunday  school,  and 
preached  at  Double  Branches,  where  I  heard  my  first  ser- 
mon. 


280      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

In  early  January  of  the  following  year  he  was  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  working  for  the  passage  of  the 
Blair  bill  by  the  Federal  Congress.  In  the  latter 
days  of  March  he  was  again  in  Washington: — 

March  27. — To  Washington  and  back. 

Saw  Secretaries  Lamar  and  Garland,  Assistant  Secre- 
tary Porter,  and  Gen.  Eaton  and  Atkins.  Lamar  asked  if 
I  would  accept  place  of  head  of  Bureau  of  Education,  and 
I  replied  in  the  negative. 

Early  in  May  he  was  the  recipient  of  a  letter  from 
President  Hayes  inviting  him  to  confer  with  the 
Slater  Board. 

In  response  to  this  invitation  he  went  to  New 
York;  and  his  diary  under  date  of  May  20,  1885, 
contains  the  following: — 

Attended  by  invitation  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Trus- 
tees of  the  Slater  Fund,  to  confer  as  to  the  policy  of  the 
Board. 

Talked  an  hour  or  more,  giving  my  opinion,  and  answer- 
ing questions. 

Dined  at  the  University  Club.  Present,  M.  K.  Jesup, 
host;  President  Hayes;  Chief  Justice  M.  R.  Waite;  D.  C. 
Gilman,  President  of  Johns  Hopkins;  J.  A.  Stewart;  W.  E. 
Dodge;  Dr.  A.  G.  Haygood;  Hon.  G.  J.  Orr  of  Georgia. 

"In  the  autumn  of  1885,"  he  writes,  "I  was  in  South- 
west  Virginia  and  East  Tennessee,  attending  associations 
and  making  speeches  in  behalf  of  Education,  Missions,  &c. 
During  my  absence  Mrs.  Curry  received  a  letter  from 
Hon.  Thos.  F.  Bayard,  addressed  to  me,  offering  in  behalf 
of  President  Cleveland  the  position  of  Envoy  Extraordi- 
nary and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  Spain.  For  some 
days  neither  letter  nor  telegram  could  reach  me.  Finally 
at  Rogersville,  Tennessee,  the  unexpected  news  reached 
me,  and  I  took  the  first  train  for  Asheville  to  join  Mrs. 


PEABODY   AND    HIS    TRUST        281 

Curry  and  discuss  the  question  of  acceptance.  After  two 
visits  to  Washington,  I  saw  Mr.  Bayard  and  the  President 
and  accepted  the  position;  but  concluded  to  have  no  publi- 
cation thereof  until  after  the  meeting  of  the  Peabody 
Trustees,  which  was  to  occur  soon  in  October." 

On  October  1,  1885,  Curry  resigned  his  position 
as  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Woman's 
Normal  College  at  Farmville,  retaining,  however, 
his  office  of  Trustee  until  April  25,  1893.  Six  days 
later  he  submitted  his  annual  report  to  the  Peabody 
Board,  at  their  regular  meeting  in  New  York  City. 
After  reading  the  report,  he  presented  to  the  Board 
the  following  communication: — 

Richmond,  Va.,  Oct.  7,  1885. 
To  the  Trustees  of  the  Peabody  Education  Fund: 

Having  consented  to  accept  from  the  Government  an 
important  diplomatic  trust,  I  must  ask  you  not  to  renew 
my  appointment  as  General  Agent,  unless  it  be  for  a  very 
brief  period,  so  as  to  prevent  any  confusion  from  a  too 
sudden  severance  of  the  connection  which  I  hold  with  the 
Fund. 

In  closing  a  relation,  which  to  me  has  been  uninter- 
ruptedly pleasant,  you  will  pardon  me  for  expressing  my 
most  grateful  appreciation  of  the  confidence  and  of  the 
personal  regard  with  which  you  have  honored  me.  From 
the  honored  Chairman  and  every  Trustee,  I  have  had  only 
kindness  and  generous  support.  The  performance  of  my 
duties,  not  easy  as  I  interpreted  them,  has  been  a  labor  of 
love.  Mr.  Peabody  was  the  most  liberal  benefactor  the 
South  ever  had,  and  his  benefaction  came  at  a  time  when 
she  was  in  the  depth  of  poverty  and  anguish.  Education 
being  necessary  to  material  advancement,  and  in  every 
mental  and  moral  relation,  his  munificence  took  most 
wisely  the  direction  of  aiding  in  the  education  of  the  youth 
of  both  races.  The  initial  effort  of  the  Trustees  was  to  stim- 


282     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

ulate  the  establishment  of  pubhc  school  systems,  and  after- 
wards to  insure  their  permanency  and  constant  improve- 
ment. As  a  factor  in  the  production  of  these  accomplished 
results,  no  single  agency  has  been  so  potent  and  beneficial 
as  the  Peabody  Education  Fund.  The  next  and  correlated 
step  was  to  labor  for  the  improvement  of  the  teaching  in 
the  public  schools.  This  has  been  effected  in  a  marked 
degree  by  sustaining  Teachers'  Institutes  and  Normal 
Schools.  The  States  are  gradually  incorporating  into  their 
school  systems,  and  sustaining  by  annual  grants,  these 
most  effective  instrumentalities  for  the  improvement  of 
those  systems.  The  Normal  College  at  Nashville  has 
emerged  from  the  difficulties  which  five  years  ago  im- 
perilled its  life,  and  now,  with  the  cordial  co-operation  of 
Tennessee,  is  vindicating  its  right  to  a  place  among  the 
best  institutions  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States. 

Instead  of  confining  myself  to  office  work, — to  the  hum- 
ble but  useful  avocation  of  almoner  for  the  distribution  of 
the  income  of  the  Fund, — I  have  sought  to  do  something 
towards  the  creation  of  a  healthier  educational  sentiment, 
and  to  identify  the  Trust  with  the  most  advanced  educa- 
tional progress.  Every  door  of  access  to  the  people, — to 
schools,  colleges,  legislatures, — has  been  thrown  wide  open 
to  your  representative,  and  if  good  has  not  been  done,  the 
fault  is  his.  Everywhere  I  have  advocated  the  uplifting 
of  the  lately  emancipated  and  enfranchised  negro,  and 
upon  no  part  of  my  work  do  I  look  back  with  greater  per- 
sonal satisfaction. 

In  the  spirit  of  the  Trust,  and  in  known  harmony  with 
the  opinions  of  Mr.  Peabody,  I  have  labored  assiduously 
to  renew  and  cultivate  a  feeling  of  broad  and  catholic  patri- 
otism, to  cement  in  closest  fraternity  all  sections  and  peo- 
ples of  the  Union,  to  bury  discords  and  strifes,  and  to  lift 
up  to  a  higher  plane  than  that  of  sectional  animosity  or  of 
angry  prejudices.  To-day,  thank  God,  the  South  is  as 
loyal  to  the  Union,  and  as  ready  to  pour  out  blood  and 


PEABODY   AND    HIS    TRUST        283 

treasure  for  the  national  honor  and  national  safety  as 
Ohio  or  Massachusetts. 

What  has  been  achieved  in  the  States  which  are  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  the  Trust,  since  you  organized  as  a  Board  in 
Washington  City,  on  the  8th  of  February,  1867,  is  incredi- 
ble. There  have  been  revolutions  in  labor,  economic  in- 
dustries, customs,  traditions,  feehngs,  convictions,  laws 
and  institutions,  any  one  of  which  considered  singly  would 
mark  a  social  era,  a  civil  epoch.  No  people  ever  accom- 
plished so  much  for  education,  in  so  brief  a  period,  under 
such  crushing  embarrassments,  as  the  South  has  done.  If 
the  General  Government,  heeding  the  earnest  words  and 
the  unanswerable  arguments  of  this  Board,  will  come  to 
the  relief  of  States  struggling  with  heroic  energy  to  meet 
the  responsibilities  of  their  new  life,  problems  of  gigantic 
import  will  be  aided  in  their  solution,  and  the  faith  and 
the  hope  of  the  patriot  and  the  Christian  will  be  strength- 
ened in  reference  to  the  success  and  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Republic. 

The  policy  of  your  Board  is  so  well  established,  and  the 
method  of  administration  has  been  so  simplified,  that  my 
withdrawal  will  put  you  to  no  inconvenience. 

Thanking  you  for  your  numerous  kindnesses,  and  wish- 
ing great  success  to  the  work  of  the  Fund,  I  am, 

Yours  most  respectfully, 

J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Evarts,  this  communication  of 
Curry's,  which  sets  forth  in  perspicuous  summary 
the  purposes  and  achievements  of  the  Peabody 
Trustees  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  methods,  aims 
and  aspirations  that  had  animated  himself  on  the 
other,  was  referred  to  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Board  for  consideration.  Mr.  Winthrop,  for 
the  Executive  Committee,  on  the  next  day  submitted 


284      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

the  following  resolutions,  which  were  unanimously 
adopted  by  the  Board: — 

Resolved,  That  the  Trustees  of  the  Peabody  Education 
Fund  have  received  with  sincere  regret  the  announcement 
of  Dr.  Curry,  that,  having  accepted  the  appointment  of 
United  States  Minister  to  Madrid,  he  must  decline  a  re- 
election as  the  General  Agent  of  this  Trust;  that  the  Trus- 
tees desire  to  enter  on  their  records  the  deep  sense  which 
they  entertain  of  the  fidelity  and  devotion  with  which  he 
has  discharged  his  duties  for  more  than  four  years  past, 
and  of  the  great  success  which  has  attended  his  labors; — 
and  that  the  grateful  regards  of  the  Trustees  will  follow 
him  into  his  new  sphere  of  public  service,  with  their  best 
wishes  for  his  health  and  happiness. 

Resolved,  That  the  appointment  of  a  General  Agent  be 
postponed  for  consideration  until  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Board,  with  authority  to  the  Executive  Committee,  in  the 
meantime,  to  make  such  temporary  arrangements  for  the 
conduct  of  the  General  Agency  as  they  may  find  necessary. 

Curry  was  requested  to  continue  to  act  as  General 
Agent  until  his  departure  for  Spain;  and  Dr.  S.  A. 
Green,  the  Secretary  of  the  Board,  was  requested 
and  authorized  to  serve  temporarily  as  General 
Agent  in  Curry's  absence. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  this  meeting  Pres- 
ident Cleveland  and  Mr.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  were 
elected  to  membership  on  the  Board  of  Trustees. 
Mr.  Morgan  was  chosen  Treasurer  and  held  that 
office  uninterruptedly  thereafter.  For  four  years 
Curry  had  been  engaged  in  the  most  fruitful  work 
offered  to  any  man  in  Southern  life.  The  paralysis 
of  war  had  at  last  passed  away  and  hope  everywhere 
reigned.  He  had  a  country  which  he  "could  love" 
and  which  he  was  about  to  represent  in  a  foreign 


PEABODY   AND    HIS    TRUST        285 

land.  This  service,  distinguished  and  agreeable  as 
it  was,  must  be  considered  as  a  mere  interlude  in 
the  man's  essential  career.  The  Peabody  Trustees 
perceived  this  and  kept  his  work  waiting  for  him. 
The  great  preacher  had  found  his  ultimate  pulpit 
in  the  schoolhouses  and  legislative  chambers  of 
eleven  States  awakening  to  a  new  national  life. 
His  general  theme  was  an  efficient  citizenship  in  a 
reunited  republic.  He  perceived  the  real  menace 
of  the  ignorant  negro.  He  saw  the  necessity  of 
industrial  preparation.  He  felt  the  need  on  the 
white  man's  part  of  the  philosophic  view  and  the 
sense  of  obligation.  He  had  faith  in  the  justice  and 
good  sense  of  the  people,  and  he  knew  their  sturdy 
power.  His  appeal  was  to  the  heart  and  his  method 
the  method  of  the  orator.  Looked  at  in  the  clear 
light  of  another  generation,  the  group  of  men  who 
preceded  and  were  now  gathered  about  Curry,  as 
he  began  his  notable  work,  was  worthy  of  such  a 
period  in  our  educational  history.  Samuel  Chapman 
Armstrong,  a  young  man  of  original  genius  and  con- 
secration, schooled  under  Mark  Hopkins,  was  be- 
ginning, on  the  shores  of  Hampton  Roads,  a  revo- 
lutionary movement  for  negro  education  destined 
to  pour  into  that  misguided  work  a  stream  of  com- 
mon sense  and  high  purpose  which  has  served  to 
steady  and  direct  it  until  this  day.  He  saw  that  the 
first  necessity  was  a  military  government  of  these 
negro  youth,  practically  and  morally  let  loose  into 
infinite  space.  Then  must  follow  a  training,  all 
the  way  up,  in  work,  the  boys  or  girls  being  expected 
to  furnish  to  a  considerable  extent  the  means  for  their 
schooling  and  support.  The  schooling  must  be  co- 
educational, that  the  educated  colored  boy  could 


286      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

have  for  his  wife  an  educated  colored  girl.  The 
religious  education  should  be  Christian  in  the  broad 
sense  that  it  left  the  worship  of  creed  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal polity  out  of  account.  As  soon  as  possible  the 
school  at  Hampton  was  set  free  from  dependence 
on  any  association  and  organized  under  a  board  of 
directors.  He  also  understood  that  any  system  of 
schooling  of  the  colored  people,  to  be  effective  and 
permanent,  while  it  might  depend  largely  on  the 
North  for  pecuniary  support,  must  commend  itself 
to  the  common  school  public  of  the  Southern  State 
in  which  it  was  set  up.  Thus  he  persuaded  the 
Legislature  of  Virginia  to  appropriate  $10,000  an- 
nually of  its  national  industrial  school  fund,  with 
the  superintendent  of  public  instruction  and  other 
gentlemen  of  the  State  as  advisory  trustees.  He 
left  the  classical  upper  story  out  of  his  system  of 
instruction,  organizing  the  school  as  far  as  possible 
according  to  the  methods  of  the  best  primary  and 
secondary  graded  schools  of  the  day.  The  normal 
training  of  the  superior  students  was  at  once  estab- 
lished, under  competent  management,  in  connection 
with  the  practice  department,  the  Butler  common 
school,  afterwards  named  the  Whittier. 

WilUam  H.  Ruffner,  a  young  Presbyterian  clergy- 
man and  scientist,  as  first  State  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction  in  Virginia,  was  planting  the 
American  Common  School  upon  a  philosophic  basis, 
from  which  it  could  never  be  dislodged  in  the  statutes 
and  affections  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia. 
Men  like  John  Eaton,  Edward  S.  Joynes,  WiUiam 
Preston  Johnston,  Calvin  H.  Wiley,  Atticus  G.  Hay- 
good,  were  striking  hands  with  Armstrong,  Sears 
and  others  of  their  kind  in  Northern  life  and  develop- 


PEABODY   AND    HIS    TRUST         287 

ing  a  cause  and  a  quality  of  leadership  to  which  the 
best  of  the  younger  generation  could  repair.  The 
home  of  the  late  President  of  the  Southern  Confed- 
acy  had  been  reconstructed  into  a  public  school- 
house,  and  as  a  background  of  infinite  dignity  and 
inspiration  to  the  whole  idea  had  stood  the  example 
of  Lee  quietly  at  work,  reorganizing  the  old  Wash- 
ington College  into  the  institution  which  should  also 
bear  his  honored  name. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    LAND    OF   THE   ALHAMBRA 

Curry's  invitation  to  represent  the  United  States 
Government  at  Madrid  came  in  a  flattering  way, 
and  all  the  circumstances  of  his  designation  to  one 
of  the  foremost  offices  in  the  foreign  service  were  well 
calculated  to  arouse  the  recipient's  interest  and  to 
kindle  his  enthusiasm. 

Mr.  Bayard,  the  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  to  him 
as  follows: — 

Department  of  State, 

Washington,  Sept.  7,  1885. 
Personal  and  Confidential. 

My  dear  Sir: — I  wish  to  enlist  you  in  the  public  service, 
and  believe  that  an  opportunity  for  high  usefulness  is  open 
to  you,  in  which  it  may  be  in  your  power  to  render  impor- 
tant service  to  our  country. 

The  mission  to  Spain  is  now  vacant,  and  I  consider  that 
point  in  our  foreign  relations  as  second  in  importance  to 
none. 

Nothing  could  exhibit  to  you  my  personal  trust  and 
confidence  in  your  character  and  capacity  more  than  this 
expression  of  my  wish  to  see  you  the  representative  of  the 
United  States  at  Madrid.  If  you  wish  to  consult  with  me 
before  accepting  the  trust,  let  me  hear  from  you, — and  see 
you  here. 

I  can  give  you  a  room  in  my  house  (1413  Massachusetts 
Avenue),  where  we  can  have  free  conference. 

Sincerely  yours, 

T.  F.  Bayard. 
288 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     289 

Upon  learning  of  the  tender  of  the  Spanish  Mis- 
sion, Curry's  mind  turned  at  once  to  his  friend,  Mr. 
Winthrop.  From  the  httle  town  in  East  Tennessee, 
where  the  news  reached  him,  he  wrote  at  once  to  the 
venerable  President  of  the  Peabody  Board. 

ROGERSVILLE,    TeNN., 

Confidential  14  Sept.,  '85. 

Dear  Mr.  Winthrop  : — 

For  nearly  a  week  I  have  been  near  "  Cumberland  Gap," 
remote  from  railways  and  telegraph.  Arriving  here  a  few 
minutes  ago,  I  find  a, letter  and  a  mailed  telegram  from 
Mrs,  Curry,  startling  me  with  the  announcement  that 
President  Cleveland  tenders  me  the  Mission  to  Spain. 
The  tender  was  suggested,  of  course,  by  no  solicitation  of 
mine.  It  is  a  surprise.  In  my  confusion,  I  turn  to  you  as 
my  most  valued  and  trusted  friend.  What  shall  I  do?  I 
rather  suspect  Mrs.  Curry  would  not  be  unwilling  to  spend 
a  year  or  two  abroad.  My  Peabody  work  out  of  the  way, 
I  should  not  be  unwilling  to  go  to  Italy  or  Austria;  but  I 
love  the  Peabody  work;  I  am  under  obligation  to  the  Trus- 
tees; and  I  value,  as  the  most  prized  and  pleasant  of  all 
earth's  gifts,  wife  and  children  excepted,  your  friendship 
and  my  labor  with  you.  Pardon  me  for  the  utterance,  but 
I  love  you  as  I  have  never  loved  any  man  outside  my 
father's  family;  and  I  can  consent  to  do  nothing  to  which 
you  object.  Help  me  in  the  dilemma.  I  know  nothing  be- 
yond what  I  have  written,  save  that  I  am  summoned  to 
Washington.  I  shall  reach  Asheville  to-morrow,  and  may 
leave  for  Washington  on  the  16th. 

Ever  yours  sincerely, 

J.  L.  M.  Curry. 
Hon.  Robt.  C.  Winthrop, 

Brookline,  Mass. 

The  effect  of  this  letter  of  Curry's  upon  Mr. 
Winthrop  may  be  best  shown  by  the  latter's  reply, 


290      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

evidently  written  upon  the  day  of  its  receipt,  and 
illustrated  with  a  scriptural  text  of  which  the  com- 
munication itself  is  an  exposition. 

For  the  thing  which  I  greatly  feared  is  come  upon  me,  and 
that  which  I  was  afraid  of  is  come  unto  me  {Job  3:25). 

Brookline,  Mass'tts., 
16  Sept.,  1885. 
My  Dear  Dr.  Curry: — 

Your  "confidential"  letter  of  the  14th  inst.,  from  Rog- 
ersville,  Tenn.,  has  just  reached  me,  and  has  filled  me  with 
consternation.  I  had  written  to  you  at  Asheville  yester- 
day, after  examining  the  proofs  of  your  Report,  and  my 
soul  was  at  ease.  I  looked  forward  to  our  approaching 
meeting  at  New  York  with  confidence,  and  felt  that  our 
Peabody  work  was  secure  for  a  long  future.  I  felt,  too, 
that  take  it  all  in  all,  it  was  the  greatest  work  of  our  time 
and  land,  and  that  the  names  of  good  Dr.  Sears  and  your- 
self would  go  down  to  posterity  embalmed  by  the  memory 
of  the  highest  services  to  the  South  and  the  whole  country. 

The  idea  of  losing  you  from  our  labors  came  strongly 
upon  me,  when  the  new  Administration  first  came  in.  And 
if  our  friend  Bayard  had  at  once  offered  you  a  first-class 
mission,  I  should  at  least  have  acquiesced  in  its  being  de- 
servedly assigned.  The  text  which  I  have  written  at  the 
top  of  this  letter  was  then  often  in  my  mind.  But  as  one 
after  another  of  the  foreign  appointments  was  filled  by 
men  inferior  to  yourself,  and  as  your  oAvn  assurances  of 
unfailing  devotion  to  our  work  were  renewed  to  me  by 
letter  and  by  lip,  I  had  abandoned  all  apprehensions,  and 
had  looked  forward  to  being  lovingly  associated  with  you 
in  the  cause  of  Southern  Education  for  the  little  remnant 
of  my  own  life. 

I  do  not  wonder  that  Bayard  has  been  tempted  to  pluck 
you  from  our  hand.  But  for  him  to  propose  to  plump  you 
and  dear  Mrs.  Curry  down  into  the  midst  of  a  raging 
cholera  at   Madrid,   is   certainly  of   doubtful   kindness. 


THE   LAND    OF    THE    ALHAMBRA     291 

Were  there  a  great  exigency  there,  you  would  not  shrink 
from  such  a  service  at  any  risk,  I  well  know.  But  is  there 
anything  to  be  done  at  Madrid,  which  can  be  compared  in 
importance  to  the  work  you  are  now  doing  so  admirably 
and  so  effectively  at  home?  Will  any  honor  ever  attach 
to  your  name,  by  a  service  at  Madrid,  in  any  degree  com- 
parable to  that  which  you  have  won  and  are  winning  in 
your  present  sphere? 

But  all  this  is  aside  from  the  real  issue,  to  which  I  hasten 
to  turn.  It  is  in  no  spirit  of  flattery  or  compliment  that  I 
say,  that  you  are  the  very  pivot  of  George  Peabody's  great 
Southern  benefaction.  All  its  success  turns  upon  you. 
To  take  you  from  your  post  at  this  moment,  would  be  like 
taking  the  pilot  of  the  "Puritan"  away,  when  she  was  just 
on  the  starting  line.  The  American  cup  would  go  to  the 
"  Genesta."  Seriously,  I  am  afraid  your  withdrawal  from 
our  work,  so  suddenly  and  at  such  short  notice,  would  not 
only  embarrass  and  perplex  us  terribly,  but  would  awaken 
feelings  in  our  Board  which  would  afflict  me. 

Were  such  a  separation  six  months  off, — so  that  there 
would  be  time  for  deliberation, — sad  as  the  prospect  would 
be  to  me,  it  would  be  less  appalling.  When  good  Dr.  Sears 
died,  I  was  able,  with  the  aid  of  his  daughter,  to  carry  our 
work  along  for  many  months.  But  I  am  older  and  feebler 
now,  and  should  not  know  where  to  turn.  Our  Board,  too, 
is  in  a  crippled  condition, — three  vacancies  to  be  filled  next 
month,  and  several  of  those  who  are  left  suffering  from  old 
age  and  infirmities. 

I  write  frankly,  as  you  would  have  me,  and  from  the 
fullness  of  my  heart.  But  I  should  do  injustice  to  the  vital 
importance  of  your  services  as  our  General  Agent,  if  I  did 
not  say  that  your  withdrawal  would  be  an  irreparable 
loss.  Should  that  loss  really  befall  us,  and  your  place  be 
supplied  by  some  pressing  Northern  candidate,  the  South 
would  be  disquieted.  But  your  place  could  not  be  filled  in 
the  estimation  of  either  South  or  North. 

I  fully  appreciate  your  wife's  natural  disposition  to 


292     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

spend  a  few  years  abroad  as  an  Ambassadress.  I  am  afraid 
I  shall  be  out  of  her  good  graces,  which  would  be  a  great 
grief  to  me,  by  writing  as  I  have.  But  better  things  than 
Madrid  may  turn  up  for  both  of  you  one  of  these  days. 
She  would  not  like  to  have  it  said  hereafter  that  the  cause 
of  Southern  Education  had  been  brought  to  a  stand,  and 
the  Peabody  Fund  plunged  into  confusion,  by  her  hus- 
band's acceptance  of  a  Mission  abroad. 

Forgive  my  strong  expressions.  I  write  off-hand,  and 
take  no  copy  of  my  letter.  Let  me  thank  you,  however, 
as  I  do  sincerely,  for  your  warm  and  affectionate  personal 
expressions,  which  I  heartily  reciprocate.  One  of  my  main 
obligations  to  George  Peabody  is  that  his  Trust  brought 
me  into  such  intimate  relations  with  Dr.  Sears  and  your- 
self. And  let  me  not  conclude  without  assuring  you,  that 
however  you  may  decide  this  question,  my  own  regard 
and  affection  for  you  and  Mrs.  Curry  cannot  be  changed. 

Ever  sincerely, 

Your  friend, 

ROBT.    C.    WiNTHROP. 

Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  LL.D. 

On  the  23rd  of  September,  Curry  wrote  to  Mr. 
Winthrop : — 

After  a  most  painful  conflict  between  dual  duties,  the 
decision  has  been  made  and  the  Government  has  been  no- 
tified that  the  mission  will  be  accepted.  If  I  had  been  re- 
quired to  go  abroad  at  once,  a  sense  of  obligation  to  the 
Peabody  Fund  would  have  precluded  any  consideration 
of  the  tender  made,  however  honorable.  Time  is  allowed 
for  the  selection  of  a  successor,  and  to  enable  me  by  cor- 
respondence, or  personal  interviews,  to  acquaint  him  with 
our  principles  and  methods  of  administration,  and  the 
personnel  with  whom  the  Fund  must  co-operate. 

And  Mr.  Winthrop,  while  Curry  was  penning  the 
letter  containing  this  announcement,   had  already 


THE   LAND    OF    THE    ALHAMBRA     293 

overcome  his  first  feelings  of  disappointment,  and 
under  the  same  date  was  writing  to  him  thus: — 

While  I  cannot  abate  a  jot  or  tittle  of  what  I  have  here- 
tofore said  about  your  importance  to  our  Trust,  I  feel  less 
anxious  than  I  did  at  first  about  our  ability  to  carry  along 
the  Peabody  work  after  a  fashion,  without  serious  injury 
to  the  cause,  or  any  great  strain  upon  myself. 

After  the  adjournment  of  the  Peabody  Board  in 
New  York  on  October  6,  1883,  Curry  proceeded  at 
once  to  Boston,  to  call  on  Mr.  Lowell,  who  had  been 
appointed  to  Madrid  by  President  Hayes,  in  1877, 
and  transferred  thence  to  the  court  of  St.  James  in 
1880. 

I  visited  Hon.  James  Russell  Lowell  in  Boston,"  he 
writes,  "and  lunched  with  him.  He  was  courteous  and 
kind  .  .  .  and  gave  me  valuable  suggestions,  the  re- 
sult of  his  own  diplomatic  experience  in  Madrid.  One  re- 
mark he  made  surprised  me.  He  said  he  had  much  diffi- 
culty in  convincing  government  and  the  best  people  that 
an  American  Minister  could  be  a  gentleman. 

A  few  years  later  in  response  to  a  request  for  his 
portrait  Mr.  Lowell  writes  in  this  strain  to  his  suc- 
cessor : 

Deerfoot  Farm,  Southborough, 

11th  Jan.,  1887. 
Dear  Sir: 

Immediately  after  receiving  your  very  kind  letter  of 
the  24th  Nov.,  I  gave  directions  that  an  engraved  portrait 
of  me  should  be  sent  to  you  through  the  Department  of 
State.  I  hope  that  it  will  already  have  reached  you.  It 
is  thought  to  be  a  pretty  fair  likeness. 

I  am  very  glad  you  liked  my  address  at  the  Harvard 
Centenary.     It  was  a  very  pleasant  affair  and  everything 


294      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

went  off  smothly  and  successfully.  The  audience, 
especially  that  part  of  it  on  the  platform,  was  a  very 
remarkable  one,  the  preponderance  of  gray  and  even 
white  heads  being  remarkable.  It  was  observed  that 
nearly  all  those  who  had  an  active  share  in  the  ceremonies 
were  much  older  than  those  who  performed  similar  func- 
tions at  the  last  celebration  in  1836.  The  chief  marshal 
of  the  day  had  been  one  of  the  marshals  fifty  years  before, 
the  poet  was  a  graduate  of  fifty-seven  years'  standing, 
the  orator  of  forty-eight,  the  President  of  the  day  of 
forty-eight,  and  so  on.  Is  this  a  sign  that  we  begin  later 
than  we  used?  At  any  rate  it  is  encouraging  for  us 
veterans. 

Matters  are  going  on  very  quietly  here.  The  Admin- 
istration of  President  Cleveland  is  establishing  itself  in 
the  confidence  of  the  people  and  I  think  you  may  look 
forward  to  eight  years'  service  at  your  post.  I  hope  you 
find  it  agreeable.  I  was  entirely  contented  there.  I  liked 
the  Spaniards  and  continue  to  like  them.  I  am  sorry 
that  I  cannot  ask  to  be  remembered  to  Mrs.  Curry,  but 
I  beg  that  you  give  my  best  respects  to  her. 

Faithfully  yours, 

J.  R.  Lowell. 

Later  in  the  month  Curry  went  again  to  Wash- 
ington. 

"On  13th  October,"  he  continues,  "I  took  the  oath  of 
office  and  received  my  commission,  and  then  spent  some 
days  in  the  Department,  reviewing  correspondence,  and 
familiarizing  myself  with  duties  and  pending  questions. 
I  dined  with  Mr.  Bayard  and  the  Spanish  Minister,  Sefior 
Valera  and  Mr.  Foster,  our  late  Minister  to  Spain,  who 
was  very  kind  and  useful  to  me.  Governor  Porter  and 
Mr.  Adee,  Assistant  Secretaries  of  State,  were  guests  also. 
Numerous  congratulatory  telegrams  and  letters  were 
received,  and  the  citizens  of  Richmond  offered  me  a 
banquet." 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     295 

Among  these  telegrams  and  letters  was  one  so 
out  of  the  usual  character  of  such  messages,  that  it 
will  bear  insertion  here. 

The  Rock  Islander, 

First  Established  in  1854. 
J.  B.  Danforth,  Editor. 

Rock  Island,  Ills.,  Oct.  8,  1885. 
Dear  Sir: — 

To-day,  when  I  saw  in  telegrams  your  appointment  as 
Minister  to  Spain,  I  remembered  a  letter  you  wrote  me  in 
January,  1860;  and  I  took  it  from  a  file  of  valuables,  and 
re-read  it.  I  was  then  trying  to  persuade  you  and  C.  C. 
Clay  and  Gov.  McRea,  and  I  don't  know  how  many  more, 
not  to  talk  about  secession,  for  it  would  beat  us  in  the  fall 
of  that  year.  I  always  admired  your  spirited  letter.  I 
have  used  it  several  times  in  speeches,  to  show  that  the 
South  was  in  earnest,  and  that  secession  and  war  were  in- 
evitable. I  never  published  it,  and  don't  propose  to  now, 
for  it  would  make  Rome  howl, 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  of  you  again.  I  was  afraid  you 
had  passed  from  earth.  I  congratulate  you  on  the  appoint- 
ment, for  I  know  you  will  creditably  represent  the  whole 
country.    May  you  live  long  and  prosper. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  B.  Danforth. 
Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry, 
Richmond,  Va. 

On  November  5,  1885,  after  a  series  of  social  enter- 
tainments given  in  his  honor  by  gentlemen  of  dis- 
tinction and  prominence  in  Washington  and  in 
Richmond,  Curry  set  sail  from  New  York,  accom- 
panied by  Mrs.  Curry,  on  the  steamer  ''Germanic." 
They  stopped  successively  in  London  and  Paris, 
long  enough  to  be  entertained  by  the  American 
Ministers,  Messrs.  Phelps  and  McLane;   and  in  the 


296      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

latter  city,  Mrs.  Curry  tarried  for  a  month;  while 
her  husband  went  on  to  Spain,  and  reached  Madrid 
on  the  morning  of  the  25th  of  November. 

The  coming  of  the  new  American  Minister  to  the 
scene  of  his  latest  labors  was  contemporaneous  with 
the  departure  from  earth  of  the  Spanish  King.  On 
the  morning  of  Curry's  arrival,  he  was  met  at  the 
railroad  station  by  Mr.  Strobel,  the  American 
Secretary  of  Legation,  and  escorted  to  his  hotel. 
At  9  o'clock  of  the  same  day,  his  Majesty  King 
Alfonso  the  Third  departed  this  life;  and  with  the 
note  of  this  melancholy  incident,  Curry  records  in 
his  diary  the  coincidence  of  the  death  that  day  of 
Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  Vice-president  of  the  United 
States. 

On  December  1st  the  new  Minister  had  an  un- 
official interview  with  Sigismund  Moret,  the  Spanish 
Minister  of  State,  at  his  office  in  the  palace.  It 
appears  that  the  death  of  the  King  invalidated 
Curry's  credentials  as  Minister;  and  accordingly 
he  was  compelled  to  wait  until  others  could  be  sent 
from  Washington,  before  he  might  be  formally  pre- 
sented to  the  Queen  Regent.  On  the  3rd  day  of  the 
month,  however,  he  received  a  cablegram  from  his 
government  at  home,  constituting  him  a  special 
envoy  to  represent  the  United  States  at  the  King's 
funeral. 

Although  in  his  usual  personal  attire  Curry  always 
exhibited  a  marked  neatness,  and  a  due  regard  for 
the  mandates  of  fashion  in  the  cut  and  texture  of 
his  garments,  he  was  in  no  sense  an  exquisite,  or 
inclined  to  any  sort  of  personal  display.  Yet  some 
sense  of  incongruity  seems  to  have  taken  possession 
of  him,  as  it  has  been  known  to  possess  other  Ameri- 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     297 

can  representatives  in  European  Courts  upon  State 
occasions,  in  being  compelled  to  appear  at  any  hour 
of  the  day  in  clothes,  which  ordinarily  are  worn  in 
good  society  the  world  over  only  in  the  evening.  In 
a  letter  written  to  Mr.  Winthrop  on  December  6, 
he  remarks,  at  some  length,  upon  his  embarrassment 
at  the  ''conspicuous  peculiarity"  of  having  to  appear 
in  ''a  dress-coat"  at  the  King's  approaching  funeral, 
when  all  other  diplomats  of  similar  rank  with  his 
own  would  be  arrayed  in  appropriate  and  imposing 
costumes,  with  their  insignia  and  decorations. 
Mr.  Winthrop's  reply  is  amusing: — 

I  am  afraid  I  could  not  have  helped  you  much  lq  regard 
to  your  Court  costume.  I  was  presented  to  Queen  Vic- 
toria in  1847,  in  full  diplomatic  uniform,  while  Bancroft 
was  Minister  and  Polk  President.  In  1860  I  went  to  Court 
again  with  Mr.  Dallas,  in  black  evening  dress,  but  with 
breeches  or  shorts,  and  with  a  civil  sword  and  chapeau. 
In  1867  I  went  again  in  my  old  diplomatic  uniform,  with 
Mr.  Adams,  who  insisted  on  wearing  a  uniform  like  that 
of  his  father  and  grandfather.  I  suppose  you  have  some 
instructions  on  the  subject.  It  is  rather  a  pity  that  the 
Ministers  of  the  United  States  should  be  compelled  to  dress 
like  the  waiters. 

Curry  has  recorded  at  some  length  the  details  of 
his  first  reception  by  the  Queen  Regent,  which  took 
place  on  the  11th  of  December;  and  of  the  King's 
funeral  on  the  day  following: — 

"On  that  day"  (December  11)  "at  3.30  p.  m.,  Mr. 
Strobel  and  I  repaired  to  the  palace,  and  I  was  presented 
by  Senor  Moret,  in  order  to  convey  to  the  Queen  the  sen- 
timents of  the  President  in  reference  to  the  death  of  the 
King,  and  as  preparatory  to  taking  part  in  the  funeral 
ceremonies. 


298      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

"This  was  my  first  interview  with  Royalty,  except  a 
presentation  at  the  Quirinal  in  1876,  when  we  had  the 
honor  at  a  State  ball  of  being  presented  to  Humbert  and 
Christina,  who  afterwards  became  King  and  Queen  of 
Italy. 

"The  Queen,  in  deep  mourning,  was  dignified  and  cour- 
teous and  graceful,  and  was  evidently  affected  by  the  ex- 
pressions of  the  little  address  which  I  made  to  her  in  be- 
half of  my  country. 

"On  the  succeeding  day  occurred  at  the  Church  of  St. 
Sebastian,  with  great  pomp  and  display,  the  funeral  of  the 
deceased  King.  The  house  was  packed.  Seats  were  as- 
signed to,  and  reserved  for  the  diplomatic  corps  and  the 
dignitaries.  All  the  governments  of  Europe  had  author- 
ized Special  Ambassadors,  who,  with  the  Cabinet  and  some 
others,  had  seats  of  honor  in  the  choir.  Being  a  Special 
Envoy,  equivalent  to  an  Ambassador,  I  was  honored  with 
a  seat  behind  the  'elect  few';  and  being  just  behind  the 
Papal  Nuncio,  Cardinal  Rampolla,  I  watched  him,  and 
was  thus  able  to  go  through  the  various  'risings  and  sit- 
tings,' which  were  frequent,  and  without  such  experienced 
guidance,  would  have  been  embarrassing.  The  Diplo- 
matic Corps,  sat  below  the  choir,  as  did  various  other  offi- 
cials and  especially  invited  guests.  All  were  in  their 
gorgeous  uniforms  and  decorations  except  the  representa- 
tives of  the  United  States;  and  we,  restrained  by  the 
absurd  instructions  of  our  Government,  wore  the  dress- 
suit  of  a  head-waiter  in  a  hotel.  The  Archbishop  of  Valla- 
dolid,  Exc'mo  Sr.  D.  Benito  Sanz  y  Fores,  preached 
the  funeral  oration;  and  the  magnificent  tenor  singer, 
Guyarez,  sang  at  length,  and  with  a  profound  impres- 
sion. 

"On  the  same  day,  as  diplomatic  etiquette  required,  I 
had  an  audience,  arrangements  as  to  time  having  previ- 
ously been  made,  of  Infanta  Isabel,  sister  of  Alfonso,  and 
of  Isabella,  the  Queen  Mother,  who  had  been  dethroned  in 
1868." 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     299 

The  question  of  a  proper  court  costume  appears  to 
have  been  for  a  long  time  before  Curry's  mission  a 
more  or  less  burning  one  with  American  Ministers 
abroad.  When  Mr.  Buchanan  went  as  Minister  to 
St.  James,  Secretary  of  State  Marcy  had  just  issued 
an  order  that  American  Ministers  abroad  should 
appear  at  public  functions  in  the  plain  and  simple 
costume  of  an  American  citizen.  The  effect  of  this 
order  on  some  of  the  European  Courts  is  said  to 
have  been  remarkable.  The  British  press  appears 
to  have  discussed  it;  and  the  story  is  told  that,  just 
before  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  Mr.  Buchanan 
received  from  the  master  of  ceremonies  a  printed 
paper  to  the  effect  that  no  one  would  be  admitted 
to  the  diplomatic  gallery  or  to  the  body  of  either 
house  who  did  not  wear  a  court  costume.  The 
American  Minister  thereupon  stayed  away,  although 
the  London  Times  reported  him  as  attending  and 
feeling  uncomfortable  and  conspicuous  in  his  plain 
clothes.  When  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  ap- 
pear at  Court,  however,  he  followed  his  government's 
instructions,  adding  to  his  "evening  clothes"  a  plain 
black-hilted  sword;  and  it  is  related  of  him  that 
Mr.  Buchanan  said  afterwards  that  he  never  was 
prouder  of  his  country  than  he  was  as  he  stood  there, 
the  most  simply  dressed  person  in  the  room,  amid  the 
uniforms  and  decorations  of  all  the  Courts  of  Europe. 

On  the  22nd  of  December,  Curry  presented  his 
credential  letter  to  Her  Majesty,  and  was  received 
as  the  Minister  Plenipotentiary  and  Envoy  Extraor- 
dinary of  the  United  States.  On  the  occasion  of  its 
presentation  he  delivered  to  the  Queen  a  formal  ad- 
dress, which  had  been  prepared  in  advance  and  sub- 
mitted, according  to  custom,  to  the  Spanish  Minister 


300     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

of  State  for  approval ;  and  to  which  the  Queen  made 
a  gracious  and  pleasant  though  brief  reply.  Later 
he  made  calls,  as  the  Court  etiquette  required,  upon 
Sagasta,  President  of  the  Council  of  Ministers,  and 
upon  Moret,  the  Minister  of  State;  and  on  the  day 
following,  he  visited  in  succession  the  remaining 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  his  colleagues  of  the 
Diplomatic  Corps,  according  to  the  custom  which 
requires  the  latest  comer  to  make  the  first  calls. 

All  the  ceremonial  requirements  of  an  ancient  and 
punctilious  Court  were  rigidly  observed  by  the  new 
American  Minister.  On  New  Year's  Day,  1886,  in 
company  with  the  whole  Diplomatic  Corps,  he  paid 
a  visit  of  condolence  to  the  Queen  Regent,  and  the 
Infanta  Isabella;  and  a  few  days  after,  with  Mrs. 
Curry,  he  called  in  a  less  formal  way  upon  the  same 
royal  personages. 

With  a  ready  intelligence  that  foreign  diplomacy 
carries  with  it  in  eminent  degree  the  requirements 
of  social  obligation,  Curry  and  his  wife  began  soon 
thereafter  a  series  of  afternoon  receptions,  which 
were  continued  with  increasing  popularity  during 
the  period  of  their  sojourn  at  the  Spanish  Court. 
Frequent  dinners  were  given,  in  return  for  like  civil- 
ities, and  to  promote  international  good  feeling; 
and  to  these  functions  were  invited  the  Diplomatic 
Corps,  members  of  the  government,  officers  of  the 
army  and  navy,  members  of  the  nobility,  English 
and  American  visitors,  and  the  elite  of  the  old 
Spanish  families  of  Madrid.  The  good  taste  and 
charm  of  these  entertainments  soon  attracted  public 
attention;  and  the  newspapers  of  the  Capitol  were 
lavish  in  the  praise  which  they  bestowed  upon  their 
distinction. 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     301 

"The  American  Legation,"  commented  El  Resumen,  in 
an  article  which  was  characteristic  of  many  others  that 
appeared  in  the  Spanish  press  of  the  period,  "is  undoubt- 
edly one  of  the  most  hospitable  in  Madrid.  Mr.  Curry  and 
his  beautiful  and  distinguished  wife  sustain  worthily  in  the 
Spanish  Capital  the  standard  of  the  rich  and  powerful 
American  Republic.  In  addition  to  their  Monday  recep- 
tions, they  have  inaugurated  a  series  of  sumptuous  ban- 
quets on  Thursdays.     .     .     . 

"Mr.  Curry  employs  his  diplomatic  leisure  in  writing  a 
work  on  the  Constitutions  which  have  been  used  in  Spain 
since  the  establishment  of  the  Parliamentary  regime." 

,  It  was  a  season  of  no  small  personal  pleasure  and 
enjoyment  to  the  Currys;  and  of  it,  Curry  wrote  a 
short  time  before  his  death: — 

Even  now,  twelve  and  fourteen  years  after,  a  war  with 
bitterness  and  humiliating  results  intervening,  we  catch 
echoes  of  pleasant  remembrances  of  those  enjoyable  events. 

Of  this  social  side  of  his  career  Curry  writes  to 
Mr.  Winthrop  in  Boston,  after  a  year's  experience, 
as  follows: — 

Madrid,  28  Dec,  1886. 
Dear  Mr.  Winthrop: — 

.  .  .  In  a  former  letter,  I  think  I  mentioned  our  for- 
mal or  State  dinners,  which  bring  us  into  pleasant  social 
intercourse  with  leading  men  and  women.  I  do  not  share 
in  his  political  opinions,  but  no  statesman  here  has  im- 
pressed me  as  much  as  Canovas.  He  has  firmness,  cour- 
age, intelligence,  political  experience,  breadth  of  view  and 
much  wit.  He  talks  at  a  dirmer-table  exceedingly  well, 
but  both  he  and  Castelar  monopolize  the  "talk."  Cano- 
vas, speaking  of  Castelar's  well-known  and  inoffensive 
vanity,  and  peacockish  display,  said  of  him,  that  he  never 
saw  a  marriage  without  wishing  to  be  the  bride,  nor  a 
funeral  without  wishing  to  be  the  corpse. 


302      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

In  addition  to  dinners,  Mrs.  Curry  has  receptions  every 
Monday  from  5  to  7;  and  these  re-unions  are  so  popular 
that  her  salons  are  crowded  with  the  best  and  most  no- 
table people  of  Madrid.  This  winter's  experience  is  in 
most  pleasant  contrast  with  the  last;  and  has  increased — 
decreased,  rather,  the  discomforts  of  Madrid  life,  and 
much  enhanced  my  ability  and  opportunities  for  useful- 
ness. I  beg  you  to  believe  me  that  my  desire  to  benefit 
our  country,  and  to  show  that  an  ex-Confederate  can  be 
entrusted  with  the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  Country,  are 
the  highest  motives  of  action.     .     .     . 

Yours  faithfully, 
J.  L.  M.  Curry. 
Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop, 
Boston,  Mass. 

During  the  fiirst  year  of  Curry's  service  at  Madrid, 
an  event  of  unusual  interest  occurred  in  the  post- 
humous birth  of  the  heir  to  the  throne  of  the  King, 
whose  death  had  taken  place  on  the  day  of  the 
Minister's  arrival. 

"On  28  April,"  he  writes,  "I  received  an  invitation,  sent 
to  the  diplomatic  corps,  based  on  the  approaching  confine- 
ment of  the  Queen  Regent,  with  a  request  to  be  present  at 
'la  ceremonia  de  la  presentacion  del  Rey  y  Infanta.' 

"On  the  first  of  May  I  received  an  official  notification, 
more  formal  and  urgent,  from  the  Introducer  of  Ambassa- 
dors, and  from  the 'MayordomiadeS.M.  .  .  .'  invit- 
ing me  to  '  assista  a  Palacio  al  acto  de  la  presentacion  del 
Rey  y  Infanta  que  S.M.  diere  a  luz.'  Four  days  afterwards 
Mary  and  I  met  the  Queen  Regent  and  the  Infanta  Eula- 
lia  driving  in  a  low,  two-seated  carriage.  On  Monday,  the 
17th  of  May,  about  sunrise,  a  messenger  from  the  Palace 
came  in  post  haste  to  summon  my  immediate  attendance. 
Omitting  all  signs  of  mourning,  with  which  all  officials  were 
bedecked  since  the  death  of  the  King,  I  went  to  the  Palace 


THE   LAND    OF    THE    ALHAMBEA     303 

and  found  some  of  the  diplomatic  corps  (others  came  later) 
and  government  officials,  in  full  uniform,  with  cocked  hats, 
swords,  gold  bands,  and  all  the  decorations  to  which  they 
were  entitled.  The  Cabinet,  officially  arrayed,  and  a  num- 
ber of  distinguished  officers  and  civilians  were  there,  or  ar- 
rived afterwards. 

"We  waited  half  or  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  when  the 
Cabinet  was  called.  Soon  the  President,  Senor  Sagasta, 
returned,  and  standing  at  the  door,  proclaimed  in  Spanish, 
'  Long  live  the  King ! '  This  announced  the  birth  and  sex 
of  him,  who,  so  far  as  I  know,  was  the  first  human  being 
ever  born  a  King. 

"Passing  at  once  through  a  suite  of  rooms,  we  were 
halted  next  to  the  chamber  of  the  Queen.  Arranging  our- 
selves in  a  semicircle,  and  waiting  for  what  might  occur, 
a  lady,  one  of  the  Queen's  waiting-women,  came  out,  hold- 
ing in  her  hands  a  beautiful  silver  basket,  or  waiter.  In 
this,  enveloped  in  soft  cotton,  was  the  new-born  babe.  His 
Royal  Highness,  Prince  of  Asturias,  King  of  Spain.  The 
babe  was  passed  around,  in  puris  naturalihus,  for  our  in- 
spection; but  I  did  not  see  the  divinity  which  hedges  in  a 
King.  He  soon  proved  his  common  humanity  by  crying, 
and  was  withdrawn  to  be  clothed.  This  ceremony,  once 
so  common,  to  prevent  imposition  of  false  heirs,  is  peculiar 
to  Spain;  and  I  am  one  of  the  few  now  living  who  'assisted' 
at  such  a  function.  The  birth  was  soon  made  known  by 
firing  of  cannon,  ringing  of  bells,  and  noisy,  tumultuous 
demonstrations  on  the  streets.     .     .     . 

"On  the  22nd  the  baptism  of  the  babe  was  performed 
in  the  royal  chapel  in  the  Palace,  and  was  a  splendid  cere- 
monial. Invitations  were  sent  us;  and  they  prescribed  the 
dress  for  both  men  and  women.  The  rigor  of  the  rule  about 
mourning  had  been  relaxed  since  the  advent  of  the  royal 
monarch,  and  the  eagerness  of  the  ladies,  even  the  sisters 
of  the  late  King,  to  throw  aside  the  sombre  black,  showed 
that  mourning  for  a  conventional  time  was  irksome  and 
tended  to  degenerate  into  mere  formalities. 


304      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

"Just  before  one  o'clock,  we  drove  to  the  Palace.  The 
square  and  surrounding  streets  were  thronged  with  eager 
and  curious  people.  We  entered  by  the  grand  staircase, 
one  of  the  most  magnificent  in  Europe,  which  was  lined  by 
officers  and  soldiers  richly  dressed.  A  spacious  corridor 
surrounds  and  overlooks  the  interior  court  or  plaza.  This 
was  decorated  with  abundant  and  beautiful  tapestry, 
while  the  floor  was  richly  carpeted.  To  reach  the  chapel  it 
was  necessary  to  make  the  circuit  of  full  half  of  the  corri- 
dor. The  whole  distance  was  lined  with  people,  four  or 
five  rows  in  depth;  but  the  Civil  Guard  kept  an  open 
avenue,  wide  enough  for  the  gorgeously  dressed  favored 
few,  who  had  access  to  the  chapel. 

"While  marching  through  the  avenue,  the  Introducer 
of  Ambassadors  met  us,  and  offering  his  arm  to  Mrs. 
Curry,  conducted  her  to  the  tribune  which  had  been 
erected  and  upholstered  in  the  chapel  for  the  diplomatic 
corps.  It  was  with  much  personal  and  national  pride  that 
an  American  saw  the  female  representative  of  his  country 
encountering  with  such  calmness  the  battery  of  a  thousand 
eyes ;  for,  as  her  train  swept  gracefully  behind,  she  was  the 
cynosure  of  universal  admiration,  and  elicited  a  thousand 
compliments.  She  wore  a  white  satin  dress,  a  point  lace 
overdress  looped  with  feathers,  a  white  satin  train  lined 
with  green  velvet,  and  trimmed  with  sable,  a  point-lace 
mantilla,  white  feathers,  a  diamond  aigrette,  emeralds  in 
hair  and  a  diamond  brooch  in  front. 

"The  royal  chapel,  not  very  large,  was  fitted  up  with 
splendor;  and  places  were  so  assigned  as  to  prevent  un- 
comfortable pressure.  Men  and  women,  titled  and  un- 
titled, were  arrayed  in  silks  and  satins,  in  silver  and  gold 
and  gems  and  jewels.  The  clergy  were  much  en  evidence, 
and  all  departments  of  the  Government  had  their  chosen 
representatives.  The  magnificence  was  unparalleled.  The 
royal  babe,  gorgeously  dressed,  preceded  by  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical dignitaries,  was  brought  in  by  Infanta  Isabel, 
aided  or  attended  by  the  Papal  Nuncio,  Cardinal  Ram- 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     305 

polla,  and  the  first  lady  of  the  Court.  The  little  fellow 
screamed  lustily,  showing  his  protest  against  such  fuss  and 
folly.  The  'baptism/  I  suppose,  was  after  the  usual  cere- 
mony of  the  Church  of  Rome,  emphasized  and  prolonged 
for  the  occasion,  and  the  exceptional  'subject.'  The  Pope, 
through  the  Nuncio,  stood  sponsor,  or  godfather;  and  the 
whole  function  consumed  an  hour  and  a  half. 

".  .  .  The  King  was  christened  Alfonso  Leon  Fer- 
nando Santiago  Maria  Isidro  Pascual  y  Anton." 

Curry's  principal  diplomatic  efforts  at  the  Spanish 
Court  were  in  the  direction  of  negotiating  a  com- 
mercial treaty  which  should  free  the  commerce  be- 
tween America  and  Spain  from  some  of  its  traditional 
restrictions.  Of  these  efTorts  and  their  results  he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  in  July,  1886: — 

The  same  assumption  that  you  are  more  than  interested 
in  us  as  representatives  of  the  United  States  will  justify 
me  in  saying  that  I  have  had  extraordinary,  certainly 
unusual,  success  in  my  diplomatic  negotiations.  Two  seri- 
ous questions  I  fell  heir  to.  One  of  them  has  perplexed  and 
irritated  both  countries  for  more  than  fifty  years.  Spain 
has  very  naturally  sought  to  control  the  trade  of  her  An- 
tillean  dependencies.  Our  nearness  to  the  islands,  and  the 
market  we  gave  to  their  products,  made  us  successful  com- 
petitors. Hence  grew  up  a  war  of  tariffs.  An  agreement 
of  Feb.,  1884,  intended  by  Mr.  Foster  to  remove  discrim- 
inations, failed  of  its  object;  as  the  two  governments  put  a 
contrary  interpretation  upon  certain  words  of  the  instru- 
ment. Mr.  Frelinghuysen  and  Mr.  Bayard  gave  very  em- 
phatic instructions.  I  have  succeeded  in  getting  a  Royal 
Order  removing  the  differential  flag  duty,  and  conforming 
to  the  American  construction. 

As  far  back  as  1876  Mr.  Cushing  entered  an  earnest  pro- 
test against  some  consular  fees  on  tonnage  collected  in 
American  ports.    The  different  Secretaries  of  State  have 


306     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

issued  minatory  instructions,  and  all  my  predecessors  have 
wasted  much  breath,  time  and  paper  in  a  vain  effort  to  get 
a  correction  of  the  abuse.  Fortunately,  by  incessant  exer- 
tions, demanding  all  the  tact,  patience  and  ability  I  was 
master  of,  I  have  succeeded  in  getting  a  suppression  of 
what  was  so  obnoxious  to  my  Government. 

These  Spaniards  are  strange  people.  When  you  enter  a 
house  for  the  first  time,  everything  is  placed  at  your  dis- 
position, but  the  polite  compliment  means  nothing.  The 
like  offer  of  everything  is  carried  into  diplomacy,  and  is 
equally  meaningless.  Patience  represents  an  act  or  qual- 
ity of  looking  for  justice,  or  an  expected  good,  without 
murmuring  or  fretf ulness ;  and  that  virtue  is  likely  to  have 
her  perfect  work  in  dealing  with  high  officials,  between 
whose  premises  and  performances  there  is  an  impassable 
gulf,  or  the  width  of  weary  months  and  years. 

In  a  later  memorandum  Curry  writes  of  his  labors 
in  behalf  of  a  commercial  treaty  which  should  be 
unambiguous  in  its  terms  and  just  to  his  govern- 
ment : — 

For  years  by  my  predecessors  and  myself,  the  matter 
was  pressed;  but  nothing  more  favorable  and  decisive 
could  I  accomplish  than  some  slight  modifications  of 
consular  usages  and  a  larger  modus  vivendi,  which  remained 
in  force  until  our  late  unfortunate  war. 

But  there  were  other  matters  of  importance  be- 
sides the  ^commercial  treaty  which  demanded  his 
attention  and  engaged  his  efforts;  and  his  account 
of  some  of  them  serves  to  show  that  his  representa- 
tion of  the  United  States  as  their  Minister  did  not 
mean  that  his  time  and  attention  were  devoted  only 
to  the  social  side  of  his  mission. 

"Another  matter  I  inherited,"  he  writes,  "which  gave 
annoyance  and  trouble.    For  many  years  the  Legation  was 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBEA     307 

burdened  with  Cuban  claims;  and  the  claimants,  person- 
ally, through  attorneys,  and  through  instructions  from  the 
State  Department,  were  urgent  and  insistent  in  demand- 
ing payment  for  enormous  alleged  injuries  and  losses. 

"Instead  of  making  a  drag-net  of  claims  of  varied  worth 
and  proof,  my  accomplished  Secretary,  E.  H.  Strobel,  and 
myself,  after  thorough  consideration,  decided  to  select  one, 
apparently  the  best  sustained,  and  make  a  test  of  it,  with 
the  hope  that  an  agreement  to  pay  one  would  settle  the 
principle  and  establish  a  precedent  for  paying  others.  After 
scores  of  interviews,  annoying  delays,  wearing  patience 
threadbare,  I  succeeded  in  getting  an  agreement  to  pay 
the  claim  of  Mora  for  $1,500,000.  This  agreement  bound 
the  Government,  committed  the  members  of  the  Cabinet, 
— but  aroused  active  opposition  in  the  Cortes,  threatened 
the  existence  of  the  Government,  and  drew  down  on  Moret 
vile  slanders.  I  wish  just  here  parenthetically  to  affirm 
my  perfect  faith  in  Moret's  integrity  and  absolute  freedom 
from  word  or  act  affecting  in  remotest  degree  the  purity 
of  his  official  life,  or  his  fidelity  to  the  interests  and 
honor  of  Spain.  The  claim  was  delayed  in  payment  for 
some  years;  and  Spain,  in  her  impecunious  condition, 
finally  yielded  to  heavy  pressure  brought  to  bear  on  her  by 
the  United  States  Government.  Various  pretences  have 
been  put  forth,  arrogating  credit  for  the  success  of  the 
Mora  claim;  but  the  decisive  and  binding  agreement  to 
pay  was  made  with  me  as  the  United  States  representa- 
tive." 

Curry's  personal  charm  and  attractiveness,  and 
his  varied  official  duties  and  social  opportunities  at 
Madrid,  made  for  him  many  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances there.  Among  them  were  different  members 
of  the  royal  family,  and  a  number  of  the  prominent 
politicians  and  statesmen  of  the  time  and  country. 
The  roll  of  their  names  is  notable  and  significant, 


308      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

and  includes  Sigismund  Moret,  Sagasta,  Castelar, 
Canovas  and  Salmeron;  and  on  it  also  are  inscribed 
those  of  the  Archduchess  of  Austria,  the  Duke  of 
Montpensier,  the  Comte  de  Paris,  and  many  others 
of  noble  birth  and  distinguished  rank. 

"Sigismund  Moret,"  writes  Curry,  in  1901,  "was  the 
Minister  of  State,  with  whom  I  had  all  my  official  inter- 
course. Physically  and  intellectually  he  is  a  superb  man. 
With  enlightened  views,  varied  experience,  unusual  abil- 
ity, unquestioned  patriotism,  unfailing  suavity  and  cour- 
tesy of  manner,  it  was  a  pleasure  to  deal  with  him;  and  our 
relations  were  most  cordial.  In  politics,  he  is  a  Liberal, 
such  as  one  would  class  with  Asquith,  Morley  and  Banner- 
man  in  England.  .  .  .  During  the  Spanish-American 
War  he  was  Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  and  would  have 
favored  large  concessions  to  Cuba.  In  May,  1888,  he  said 
Cuba  should  be  Americanized.  If  in  the  course  of  years  it 
desired  independence,  such  was  the  course  of  hfe.  To  give 
up  Cuba  then  would  be  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy; 
and  in  these  utterances  his  chief,  Sagasta,  agreed.  I  am 
sure  that  to  have  allowed  Cuba  to  hold  the  relation  to 
Spain,  that  Canada  does  to  England,  would  not  have  been 
objectionable.  The  insular  American  possessions,  being 
the  last  of  Spain's  continental  dominion,  were  regarded 
with  special  pride,  and  the  sensitiveness  of  the  people 
could  not  brook  such  a  loss." 

Of  Moret,  Curry  writes  further,  elsewhere: — 

My  cordial  and  pleasant  official  relations  with,  and 
warm  personal  friendship  for  Senor  Moret,  and  his  desire 
to  accommodate  the  diplomatic  corps,  and  to  finish  the 
work  in  his  department,  did  not  cure  him  of  the  incurable 
Spanish  habit  of  not  doing  to-day  what  can  be  deferred 
until  to-morrow.  As  in  the  East  the  first  and  last  word  a 
traveller  hears  is  backsheesh,  so  in  Spain  the  first  and  last 
word  is  manana.    My  diary  shows  numerous  interviews 


THE   LAND    OF    THE    ALHAMBRA     309 

with  the  Secretary;  as  many  unkept  appointments;  and 
when  conferences  were  held,  final  issues  were  not  reached, 
generally  because  of  this  national  habit.  The  experience 
of  my  colleagues  was  the  same  as  mine. 

The  traditional  and  distinguishing  Spanish  char- 
acteristic of  putting  ofi  till  to-morrow  everything 
possible  which  might  be  done  to-day  is  dwelt  upon 
by  Curry  in  many  of  his  letters  from  Madrid,  and  in 
his  other  Spanish  memorabilia;  and  it  is  worthy 
of  remark  that  he  should  have  accomplished  so 
much  in  a  diplomatic  way  in  the  teeth  of  such  un- 
favorable conditions.  But  he  was  a  diplomat  by 
nature  and  cultivation,  though  with  no  lack  of 
frankness  and  candor  in  all  his  diplomatic  life.  His 
long  habitude  of  dealing  with  men  had  cultivated 
in  him  the  patience  and  perseverance  and  sweet 
serenity  of  temper  which  were  parts  of  his  original 
nature;  and,  through  this  happy  union  of  natural 
and  acquired  qualities,  he  was  enabled,  as  a  foreign 
minister,  to  merit  the  high  praise  bestowed  upon 
hun  by  his  chief,  Secretary  Bayard,  who,  before  his 
experience  at  Madrid  was  a  year  old,  wrote  to  him 
in  a  private  letter: — 

It  is  not  invidious  to  say  you  have  accomplished  more  in 
your  single  year  than  your  predecessors  in  twenty  years. 

During  his  stay  at  Madrid,  Curry  kept  up  a  regu- 
lar correspondence  with  his  son.  Manly,  who  then 
resided  at  St.  Paul;  and  his  letters,  thus  written, 
without  reserve,  possess  much  of  the  charm  that 
spontaneity  must  give  to  all  letter-writing. 

"I  make  it  a  rule,"  he  said  in  one  of  these  epistles,  "to 
send  you  at  least  one  letter  a  week.  Sometimes,  as  I  usu- 
ally write  a  httle  every  day,  I  do  more." 


310      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Many  of  these  weekly  letters  were  lost  or  de- 
stroyed; but  those  that  remain  contain  much  that 
is  of  interest.  In  one  of  them  the  writer  gives  a 
vivid  and  pleasing  picture  of  the  Spanish  Congress, 
and  of  some  of  its  leading  figures. 

The  last  two  afternoons  I  have  attended  the  sessions  of 
Congress,  which  is  a  National  Debating  Society.  For 
some  weeks  the  body  has  been  engaged  in  verifying  their 
credentials,  and  discussing  the  speech  from  the  Throne, 
which  is  a  sort  of  Ministerial  or  Governmental  platform. 
The  room, — or  the  seats,  rather, — are  semi-circular.  A 
part  of  the  front  row  is  occupied  by  the  Ministers,  who 
are  provided  with  desks.  Under  every  seat  is  a  drawer, 
and  a  little  writing-shelf  can  be  raised.  I  have  seen  no 
one  reading  a  newspaper,  or  a  book,  except  for  reference. 
I  counted  over  fifty  bald  heads.  Very  meagre  notes 
are  used.  I  have  seen  no  manuscripts.  As  with  us 
and  the  House  of  Commons,  and  unlike  the  Assembly 
in  France,  every  member  speaks  from  his  seat.  Span- 
iards are  garrulous  and  voluble,  and  their  speeches  are 
generally  long;  but  there  is  no  scrambling  over  the 
"floor"  as  with  us.  In  Washington  a  hundred  voices  will 
scream  out  "Mr.  Speaker!"  Here,  one  very  quietly  is 
recognized;  and  there  is  evidently  a  pre-arrangement  as  to 
who  shall  speak,  and  a  preference  given  to  Ministers. 

The  Chair  seems  to  have  much  power.  He  uses  a  larger 
bell  as  a  gavel,  and  a  smaller  bell  to  summon  some  one  to 
do  his  bidding.  There  are  no  pages;  and  generally  the 
body  is  very  orderly.  One  day  I  heard  Lopez  Dominguez, 
the  leader  of  the  "  Dynastic  Left,"  and  a  reply  by  the  Min- 
ister of  Grace  and  Justice.  Yesterday  I  heard  Salmeron, 
the  leader  of  the  small  band  of  Republicans,  and  a  reply  by 
my  friend,  Moret.  Salmeron  is  an  able  man, — speaks  well 
and  deliberately,  with  self-control.  He  assailed  Mon- 
archy, and  his  speech  commanded  attention  and  excited 
contentions.    When  he  finished,  some  of  his  band  hugged 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     311 

and  kissed  him.  Moret  speaks  distinctly,  gracefully,  rap- 
idly, eloquently.  He  elicited  much  applause  from  his  Lib- 
eral supporters,  and  even  from  Conservatives.     .     .     . 

Yesterday  p.  m.  Mary  accompanied  me  to  Congress, 
and  we  heard  Castelar,  the  distinguished  Republican,  of 
whom  I  wrote  some  time  ago.  Enthusiasts  (see  March 
Century,  1886)  write  of  him  as  the  Orator  of  Humanity, — 
as  the  peculiar,  unparalleled  product  of  Spanish  environ- 
ment. I  was  disappointed.  He  is  full  of  poetry,  imagina- 
tion, fervor.  He  has  read  widely,  and  his  language  is 
full,  chaste,  appropriate.  He  is  the  most  impassioned 
speaker  I  ever  heard, — rants  excessively,  gesticulates 
vehemently  and  ludicrously.  The  pantomime — and  it 
was  not  much  more  to  me  in  my  unfamiliarity  with  the 
language,  and  my  bad  position  for  hearing — was  not  effec- 
tive. His  voice  was  not  distinct  nor  musical,  probably 
the  result  of  hoarseness,  and  the  use  of  too  much  fluid. 
{Do  not  misunderstand  me:  he  is  very  temperate;  does  not 
smoke  nor  even  drink  wine,  and  that  in  Spain  is  some- 
thing unique.)  I  was  not  moved.  I  have  heard  men  in  a 
foreign  tongue,  who,  by  voice  or  acting,  stirred  me.  Cas- 
telar did  not.  He  is  not  to  be  compared  to  Yancey.  Who 
is  ?     .     .     . 

Curry's  judgment  of  Castelar  was  not  that  of  his 
contemporaries;  nor  is  it  likely  to  be  that  of  pos- 
terity. Of  all  the  Europeans  of  his  day,  no  orator 
has  left  a  more  pronounced  reputation  for  unusual 
and  gifted  eloquence  than  the  Spaniard,  Emilio 
Castelar.  "Athens,"  say  his  countrymen,  "had  its 
Demosthenes,  Rome  its  Cicero;  and  we  have  our 
Castelar";  and  if  the  majestic  company  in  which 
they  place  him  may  seem  to  the  casual  reader  an 
exaggeration  of  his  powers,  he  undoubtedly  wielded 
the  stirring  oratory  that  of  right  belongs  al- 
ways to  the  history  of  the  minority,  as  the  most 


312      J.  L.  M.  CTJEEY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

thrilling  poetry  belongs  to  the  story  of  the  con- 
quered. 

Mr.  Adee,  whom  Curry  has  mentioned  as  the 
Assistant  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  at 
the  time  of  his  appointment  to  Madrid,  and  who 
was  charge  d'affaires  at  Madrid  fifteen  years  before 
Curry  was  made  Minister,  has  written  of  Castelar : — 

I  saw  him  make  his  famous  speech  on  the  bill  for  Cuban 
emancipation.  Madrid  was  agog  for  weeks  beforehand. 
It  was  announced  that  Castelar  was  to  make  the  grandest 
effort  of  his  life.  Tickets  for  the  galleries  were  eagerly 
sought.  Every  deputy  was  in  his  seat,  every  nook  was 
filled.  The  initial  proceedings  interested  no  one.  A 
Spaniard  said  to  me:  "All  Madrid  has  come  to  a  Castelar 
matinee." 

"Of  the  character  of  his  oratory,"  continues  Mr.  Adee, 
"it  is  not  easy  to  speak.  His  discourses  do  not  bear  close 
analysis.  Canovas,  Alonza  Martinez,  Sagasta,  Martos, 
and  many  others  are  his  masters  in  debate.  In  fact  Caste- 
lar is  not  a  good  debater.  Set  speeches  are  his  peculiar 
province.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  they  are  written  and 
committed  to  memory.  Taken  unawares  by  a  shrewd 
logician,  whom  florid  generalities  will  not  silence,  he  does 
not  show  to  advantage." 

Yet  after  all,  real  oratory  is  not  of  the  logician. 
The  fervid  passion  of  O'Connell,  the  stirring  speech 
of  Thomas  Francis  Meagher,  the  sonorous  and 
splendid  diction  of  John  Mitchel,  all  illustrate  how 
far  apart  are  the  cold,  calm,  clear  cut  logic  of  the 
scientist,  the  reasoner,  the  casuist,  and  the  emotional 
eloquence  of  that  indescribable  oratory  which  stirs 
and  thrills  the  hearts  and  souls  of  those  who  hear  it. 

Curry  himself  appears  to  have  modified  his  opinion 
of  Castelar;  for  two  years  later  he  wrote: — 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     313 

He  and  Moret  were  the  best  speakers  in  the  Cortes. 
One  speech  of  Castelar's  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  hear- 
ing was  a  wonderful  triumph  of  oratory.  For  fifteen  min- 
utes after  he  closed,  the  hurrahs  and  vivas  were  kept  up 
tumultuously;  and  Sagasta,  the  Prime  Minister,  crossed 
the  Chamber  and  embraced  him. 

Of  other  Spanish  statesmen  of  the  day  Curry 
wrote  interestingly  to  his  son: — 

We  also  heard  for  an  hour  Canovas,  the  head  of  the  late 
ministry.  He  is  probably  the  ablest  man  in  Spain;  is  not  an 
orator,  but  spoke  well.  The  Republican  leader,  Salmeron, 
having  characterized  him  as  a  "modern  Torquemeda,"  the 
reply  was  sarcastic  and  severe.  Canovas  is  the  most  inter- 
esting dinner-companion  I  have  met  in  Spain. 

Of  Canovas,  Curry  at  a  later  date  wrote  to  his 
son: — 

"Canovas,  the  leader  of  the  Conservatives,  lately  sent 
me  a  good  photograph,  with  his  autograph.  A  good  saying 
is  attributed  to  him  in  reference  to  Castelar's  well-known 
vanity,  and  peacockish  display." 

And  he  repeats  the  story  which  he  had  written  to 
Mr.  Winthrop  about  "the  bridegroom"  and  ''the 
corpse." 

During  the  hot  season,  when  ''Castilian  Days" 
at  their  best  were  almost  unendurable,  Curry  and 
his  wife  fled  to  the  mountains,  or  to  the  seashore, 
as  the  impulse  moved  them.  From  Biarritz,  beloved 
of  American  tourists,  he  wrote  his  son.  Manly,  a 
letter  in  September,  1886,  which  is  full  of  interest, 
as  illustrating  the  attitude  of  his  mind  toward  the 
morality  of  the  day.  His  view  of  art  may  seem 
uncosmopolitan,  but  it  may  at  least  be  conceded  to 
have  been  sincere;  and  if  Matthew  Arnold's  stigma- 
tism  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  as  "sl  heated  bar- 


314      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

barian,"  was  in  any  sense  just,  it  may  be  said  of 
Curry,  a  typical  American  of  his  time,  that  if  in 
the  estimate  of  cultured  Europeans  he  was  "bar- 
barian"— of  the  ''hoi  barbaroi"  in  the  real  Greek 
sense — he  was  at  least  not  a  ''heated"  one. 

"You  know,"  he  writes  to  his  son,  Manly,  after  attend- 
ing a  grand  opera  at  Biarritz,  "I  am  no  judge  of  mu- 
sic; and  so  I  omit  any  expression  of  opinion;  but  the 
scenery  was  elaborate  and  beautiful,  the  tableaus  like 
fairy  works;  and  the  dancing  sylph-like  and  graceful. 
I  am,  however,  such  an  'old  fogy,'  as  not  to  approve  so 
much  nudity  and  such  studied  exposure  of  person.  After 
much  observation  and  reflection,  while  relaxing  my  rigid 
notions  in  some  particulars,  I  am  forced  to  conclude  that 
the  nudity  in  pictures  and  statues,  the  suggestive  half- 
concealments  and  half-exposures,  in  art,  in  dances,  in 
much  fashionable  dressing,  have  a  very  deleterious  influ- 
ence on  personal  purity  and  national  morals.  The  reply 
is  quick,  I  know,  'To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure,'  and 
*  Honi  soil  qui  mal  y  pense '  as  the  motto  of  the  Knights  of 
the  Garter  phrases  it ;  but  man  is  a  poor,  frail  fallible  crea- 
ture, with  strong  appetites  and  passions,  with  dominant 
tendencies  to  evil;  and  the  history  of  Spain,  France,  Italy, 
Austria,  Greece  and  old  Rome,  shows  a  depravation  of 
morals,  and  an  amount  of  conjugal  infidelity  and  personal 
impurity  that,  so  far,  England  and  the  United  States  are 
comparatively  free  from.  When  I  see  the  American  youth 
of  both  sexes,  who  were  trained  in  pure  religious  homes, 
standing  for  hours  before  the  inimitable  productions  of 
Titian's  pencil,  or  ancient  sculptors,  or  seeing  the  exhibi- 
tions on  the  stage,  I  shudder,  because  I  know  that  an  im- 
pure thought  cherished,  wicked  passion  conceived,  is  a 
heritage  of  misery,  and  a  source  of  corruption.  My  ob- 
jections will  be  hooted  at;  but  sneers  and  ridicule  are  not 
arguments,  and  do  not  reverse  the  unchangeable  records 
of  history." 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBRA     315 

Another  letter  to  his  son  suggests  memories  of  an 
illustrious  Virginia  scholar  and  historian,  whose 
learning  has  preserved  the  names  of  many  of  the  ear- 
lier Virginians, — the  Honorable  Hugh  Blair  Grigsby. 

"I  have  just  finished  my  letter  to  dear  Mr.  Winthrop," 
he  writes  to  Manly  Curry  on  July  4th,  1886. 

"He  and  Mr.  Grigsby  had  a  habit  of  writing  to  each 
other  every  Fourth;  and  when  Grigsby  died,  I  fell  heir  to 
the  privilege.  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  should  lock 
hands  every  Fourth.  My  foreign  residence  and  represen- 
tative character  intensify  my  patriotism.  A  contrast  be- 
twixt people  and  institutions  in  the  United  States  makes 
me  more  and  more  in  love  with  America  and  our  represen- 
tative free  governments." 

The  roster  of  Curry's  correspondents,  as  illustrated 
in  his  letter-books  of  the  period,  constitutes  a  shining 
bede-roll,  the  simple  mention  of  whose  names  must 
cause  regret  that  the  limits  of  this  volume  do  not 
admit  the  publication  of  their  letters.  Among  them, 
after  Mr.  Winthrop's,  are  those  of  Secretary  Bayard, 
General  Armstrong  of  the  Hampton  School,  Senor 
Moret,  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus,  President  Cleveland, 
General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  Assistant  Secretary 
Adee,  Hon.  John  W.  Foster,  Alexander  Brown  the 
Virginia  historian,  James  Russell  Lowell,  E.  J. 
Phelps,  Francis  Wharton,  Senor  Sagasta,  Senor 
Castelar,  Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  Senor  Salmer6n,  Gen. 
Sickles,  William  Wirt  Henry,  William  A.  Courtenay, 
Sir  Philip  H.  W.  Currie,  Richmond  Pearson,  and 
others  scarcely  less  well  known. 

Of  Mr.  Winthrop  his  admiration  was  ever  increas- 
ing, and  not  infrequently  expressed.  In  August, 
1886,  he  wrote  to  his  son,  Manly,  "Mr.  Winthrop 
has  sent  me  another  volume  of  his  speeches.     His 


316     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

intellectual  and  beneficent  activity  shames  me.  He 
might  plead  the  infirmities  of  age,  and  point  proudly 
to  the  work  achieved;  but  he  practically  says  re- 
provingly to  the  less  laborious  and  useful  young, 
'I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business';  "  and  in 
the  following  November  he  writes  to  Winthrop  him- 
self, with  the  unreserved  frankness  of  affection: — 

We  felt  sure  your  thoughtful  kindness  would  not  forget 
your  far-away  friends,  and  we  were  not  disappointed;  for 
in  good  time  came  the  printed  address  of  yourself  and  the 
Report  of  Dr.  Green,  and  then  one  of  your  unapproach- 
able letters.  The  letters  of  Byron,  Gray,  Walpole,  Lady 
Mary  Montagu,  have  worldwide  celebrity;  but  a  judicious 
collection  of  yours  would  take  the  highest  rank  in  the  Lit- 
erature of  Letters. 

The  industry  and  intellectual  activity  which 
Curry  praised  in  Winthrop  were  never  wanting  in 
his  own  case.  His  energetic  diplomacy  at  Madrid 
still  left  him  the  time,  which  the  busiest  man  always 
finds,  for  yet  other  business;  and  during  his  occupa- 
tion of  the  Spanish  mission  he  made  a  study  of  the 
Spanish  constitutions,  the  result  of  which  he  com- 
pressed into  a  volume  of  three  hundred  pages  under 
the  title,  "Constitutional  Government  in  Spain." 
This  book  was  published  in  1889  by  the  Harpers. 
From  the  Spanish  records,  too,  he  prepared  and  con- 
tributed to  the  Magazine  of  American  History  a 
paper  on  ''The  Acquisition  of  Florida";  and  he 
wrote  an  introduction  for  Dr.  Armitage's  ''History 
of  the  Baptists."  It  was  with  the  pride  and  pleasure 
that  spring  from  old  associations  that  he  saw  at  this 
time  his  public  and  literary  distinction  recognized 
and  acknowledged  by  the  University  of  Georgia, 
the  home  of  his  first  intellectual  triumphs.     On  the 


THE   LAND    OF    THE   ALHAMBEA     317 

13th  of  July,  1887,  the  Chancellor  of  the  University 
wrote  to  him  as  follows: — 

I  have  the  honor  and  the  pleasure  to  inform  you  that  the 
Trustees  of  the  University  of  Georgia  have  this  day  con- 
ferred upon  you  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 
Your  Alma  Mater  hopes  that  her  gifted  and  distinguished 
son  will  accept  this  deserved  honor  at  her  hands. 

The  Currys  had  spent  the  summer  of  1886  in 
Southern  France;  and  the  next  summer  had  re- 
turned to  the  United  States  for  a  visit.  The  summer 
of  1888  saw  their  career  in  Spain  drawing  to  a  close. 
The  earlier  months  of  the  season  were  passed  in 
travelling  in  Austria,  Italy  and  Switzerland;  and  in 
August,  Curry  sent  to  Washington  the  resignation 
of  his  commission  of  Minister  to  Spain.  It  was 
''accepted  with  regret";  and  in  September  he  sailed 
from  Havre  for  America,  leaving  Mrs.  Curry  in 
Paris  for  a  stay  of  a  month  or  two  longer.  On  the 
26th  of  September,  1888,  he  called  on  Mr.  Bayard, 
the  Secretary  of  State,  and  upon  the  day  following 
on  President  Cleveland. 

Two  days  later  he  ''closed  up  his  accounts,"  as 
he  phrases  it,  at  the  State  Department. 

The  verdict  of  the  administration  which  he  had 
served  was  rendered  in  the  following  letters  from  the 
Secretary  of  State  and  from  the  President: — 

Department  of  State, 
WAsmNGTON,  October  27,  1888. 
J.  L.  M.  Curry,  Esq., 
Richmond,  Virginia. 
Sir: — When  I  received  your  dispatch  of  August  6th 
last,  tendering  your  resignation  of  the  office  of  Envoy  Ex- 
traordinary and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United 


318      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

States  to  Spain,  to  take  effect  on  September  5th  last,  you 
informed  me  that  you  were  then  upon  the  eve  of  departing 
from  Madrid  for  Switzerland,  under  your  leave  of  absence, 
and  requested  a  short  reply  by  telegraph,  addressed  to  you 
at  Geneva;  and  signified  your  willingness  to  receive  a  more 
formal  reply  after  you  should  have  returned  to  the  United 
States. 

In  consonance  with  your  wishes,  I  telegraphed  you  the 
President's  reluctant  acceptance  of  your  resignation,  and 
the  regret  I  felt  in  communicating  it. 

It  is  not  alone  that  I  feel  a  personal  loss  in  your  with- 
drawal from  a  service  in  the  Department  of  which  I  am 
the  head,  but  the  country  at  large  is  a  loser  by  your  retire- 
ment. 

The  confidence  felt  in  your  ability  and  patriotism, 
which  caused  your  selection  for  an  important  diplomatic 
position,  has  been  fully  justified  by  your  performance  of 
its  duties. 

The  impairment  of  your  health  by  the  unfavorable 
climate  of  Madrid,  to  which  alone  I  must  attribute  your 
resignation,  I  trust  will  be  speedily  restored  in  your  native 
land;  and  with  sincere  thanks  for  your  honorable  and  effi- 
cient service  to  the  country,  I  am  sincerely  and  most  truly 
yours, 

T.  F.  Bayard. 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  Nov.  2,  1888. 
Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

My  dear  Sir: — 

I  shall  not  feel  satisfied  until  I  say  to  you  more  fully 
than  I  have  already  done,  that  it  is  with  the  utmost  regret 
that  I  permit  you  to  sever  your  relation  to  our  Diplomatic 
Service.  Your  representation  of  the  Government  at  the 
Court  of  Spain  has  been  so  satisfactory  in  all  respects,  that 
I  should  be  constrained  to  ask  you  to  reconsider  your  de- 
termination to  vacate  your  official  post,  if  it  was  based 


THE   LAND    OF    THE    ALHAMBRA     319 

upon  anything  less  personal  and  important  than  your 
health. 

I  hope  that  the  resumption  of  your  former  duties  at 
home  will  be  attended  by  great  satisfaction  to  yourself  and 
great  progress  in  the  cause  of  education,  which  you  have 
had  for  so  many  years  sincerely  at  heart. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Grover  Cleveland. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN 

President  Cleveland's  felicitation  of  Curry  upon 
his  educational  work  was  a  fair  expression  of  the 
thought  of  many  friends  of  education  in  America, 
and  especially  in  the  States  of  the  South.  As 
long  as  a  year  before  his  final  resignation  of  the 
mission  to  Spain  Curry  had  expressed  to  Mr.  Win- 
throp  his  desire  to  take  up  the  General  Agency  of 
the  Peabody  Fund  again;  and  the  venerable  pres- 
ident of  the  Peabody  Board  had  hailed  the  prospect 
with  delight. 

Madrid,  28  April,  1887. 
Dear  Mr.  Winthrop: 

.  .  .  And  now  for  a  suggestion;  which  I  have  not 
discussed  with  Mrs.  Curry,  between  whom  and  myself 
there  are  never  any  reserves  in  matters  relating  to  per- 
sonal duties  and  interests. 

My  mission  here  has  been  a  success;  but  for  a  year  or 
two  I  see  little  to  be  done  beyond  routine  work  and  a 
"masterly  inactivity"  in  watching  the  progress  of  events, 
so  as  to  allow  the  Republic  to  suffer  no  detriment.  While 
my  health  is  perfectly  restored,  it  has  been  accomplished 
by  flying  from  Madrid  in  winter  and  early  spring  months. 
The  climate  here  is  treacherous  and  dangerous;  and  I 
have  been  seriously  debating  in  my  mind,  whether  the 
remaining  years  of  my  life  should  not  be  given  to  my 
country,  within  the  limits  and  on  the  soil  of  that  country. 
It  therefore  has  occurred  to  me  to  mention  to  you,  and 

320 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       321 

only  to  you,  whether,  if  in  the  coming  Peabody  year  an 
Agent  is  to  be  appointed,  I  might  not  say,  that  as  at  pres- 
ent advised,  I  would  not  be  unwilling  to  consider,  with 
favorable  prepossessions,  a  proposition  to  resume  my 
former  connection  with  the  Fund. 

I  mention  this  that  you  may  think  of  it,  and  that  we 
may  talk  it  over,  knowing  that  you  will  honor  me  with 
your  usual  frankness  and  wisdom,  having  reference  to 
myself  personally  and  the  interests  of  the  work. 

Mrs.  Curry,  as  I  wrote  to  you  on  the  4th  inst.,  will  sail 
from  Liverpool  on  the  "Adriatic"  the  25th  of  May,  in 
company  with  Dr.  Field,  and  I  have  written  to  engage 
my  passage  on  the  "  Etruria  "  for  the  6th  of  August. 

Yours  sincerely, 

J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

The  Hon.  Robt.  C.  Winthrop, 
Boston,  Mass. 

To  this  letter  Mr.  Winthrop  had  replied: — 

Brookline,  Mass. 
24  May,  1887. 
Dear  Mr.  Curry: 

.  .  .  He  (Dr.  Green)  concurs  with  me  heartily  in  the 
desire  to  reinstate  you  in  the  General  Agency,  and  then 
to  leave  you  to  find  a  Chancellor  for  the  Nashville  Nor- 
mal,— holding  the  place  yourself  until  you  have  found  the 
right  man.  Of  course  the  Trustees  must  ratify  such  a 
proceeding,  but  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  of  their  entire 
readiness  and  eagerness  to  do  so;  and  I  hope  we  may 
consider  the  matter  settled.  I  had  begun  to  be  very 
uneasy  about  the  future  of  our  Board.  Many  things 
had  concurred  to  make  me  anxious.  I  will  not  go  into 
details.  I  can  now  see  the  way  clear.  With  the  arrange- 
ment once  more  in  your  hands,  I  should  be  ready  to  sing 
a  Nunc  Dimittis,  and  to  depart  in  peace  .    .    .     Every- 


322      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

body,  South  and  North,  has  confidence  in  you  for  this 
great  Education  Trust.  You  will  have  heard  from  Gov. 
Porter  on  the  subject.  Dr.  Lindsley  and  Mr.  Jones  have 
written  to  me  and  to  him,  earnestly  calling  for  you.  The 
newspapers  have  begun  to  discuss  it.  I  will  not  say 
more  to-day,  but  I  hope  and  trust  that  you  will  come  over 
in  August  with  a  full  willingness  and  purpose  to  resume 
the  General  Agency,  and  to  carry  the  Trust  through  to 
its  limited  end.  I  wish  you  were  embarking  to-morrow 
with  Mrs.  Curry,  so  that  there  would  be  more  time  for 
arrangement  before  our  Annual  Meeting.   .    .    . 

Yours  sincerely, 

ROBT.    C.    WiNTHROP. 

H.  E. 
J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

Curry  returned  in  August;  and  they  ''talked 
it  over"  in  all  of  its  details.  During  this  visit  home 
the  dissensions  and  troubles,  which  had  temporarily 
arisen  between  the  Tennessee  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion and  the  Peabody  Board  over  the  Normal  College 
at  Nashville,  were  adjusted;  and  Dr.  Payne,  through 
Curry's  instrumentality,  was  made  the  President  of 
the  College.  So  that  Curry's  return  to  his  post  at 
Madrid  was  with  the  assurance  that  when  his  diplo- 
matic labors  should  end,  he  could  take  up  again, 
where  he  had  left  it  off,  the  work  in  which  his  heart 
was  more  warmly  enlisted  than  it  had  ever  been  in 
any  other. 

In  the  following  May,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Winthrop 
from  Madrid: — 

We  are  making  our  arrangements  for  returning  in 
August.  I  feel  a  strong  desire  to  get  back  to  the  work  I 
love  so  much,  and  to  have  a  nearer  association  with  you. 
If  I  can,  as  General  Agent,  act  on  the  lines  you  approve 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       323 

for  cultivating  a  larger  and  intenser  patriotism,  and  for 
keeping  up  a  constant  pressure  in  the  direction  of  in- 
structed public  opinion,  I  shall  be  happy.  To  write  a 
history  of  the  Trust  is  also  a  cherished  desire;  but  I  wish 
to  execute  it  thoroughly  and  conscientiously,  so  as  to 
give  satisfaction  to  the  Trustees,  do  justice  to  Mr.  Pea- 
body,  and  stimulate  a  healthier  pubUc  sentiment. 

In  less  than  three  weeks  after  his  return  home  from 
Spain,  he  was  again  at  work  as  General  Agent  of  the 
Peabody  Fund. 

The  meeting,  which  welcomed  Curry  back  to  his 
old  work,  was  held,  according  to  custom,  at  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Hotel  in  New  York;  Mr.  Winthrop  inducted 
him  into  his  old  work  in  these  gracious  words: — 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Peahody  Board  of  Trustees: 

"It  is  a  matter  of  special  satisfaction  and  gratification 
to  me  this  morning  that  I  am  privileged  to  welcome  the 
reappearance  among  us  of  our  friend,  Dr.  Curry,  and  to 
announce  to  you  that  after  three  years  of  valuable  service 
as  the  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States  at 
the  Court  of  Madrid,  he  has  resigned  that  office,  and  has 
returned  home  to  resume  his  labors  in  the  great  cause  of 
education,  as  the  General  Agent  of  the  Peabody  Trust. 

"The  business  of  our  Board,  as  you  know,  since  Dr. 
Curry  withdrew  from  our  service  in  October,  1885,  has 
been  conducted  by  our  faithful  and  untiring  Secretary, 
Dr.  Green,  as  General  Agent,  pro  ternpore;  and  to  him 
our  most  grateful  acknowledgments  are  due  for  his  de- 
voted and  efficient  labors, — voluntarily  assumed  and  per- 
formed as  labors  of  love,  and  thus  saving  no  inconsiderable 
amount  of  our  restricted  income  for  appropriation  to  the 
Southern  Schools.  Dr.  Green  has,  however,  come  to  the 
conclusion  with  me  that  for  the  entire  success  of  our  work 
there  is  now  a  positive  need  of  committing  our  General 
Agency  anew  to  an  accomplished  Southern  man  of  large 


324      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

personal  experience  in  educational  matters  in  the  Southern 
States,  and  of  special  gifts  for  communicating  the  results 
of  that  experience  to  his  fellow-workers  in  the  same  field, — 
such  a  man  as  Dr.  Curry  abundantly  proved  himself  to 
be  during  the  four  years  of  his  previous  service.  With 
the  full  understanding,  therefore,  of  what  was  hoped  and 
expected,  authority  was  given  to  me  at  our  last  meeting 
to  appoint  a  General  Agent,  under  the  advice  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  whenever  I  should  think  it  best 
to  do  so.  Under  that  authority.  Dr.  Curry  has  been 
appointed,  and  has  accepted  the  appointment.  With  him 
once  more  at  the  helm,  I  feel  assured  that  we  shall  hold 
on  our  track  successfully  to  the  end.  ..."  (Peabody 
Proceedings,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  3,  4.) 

The  note  of  satisfaction  in  the  President's  brief 
address,  at  getting  their  General  Agent  again  "in 
the  traces,"  was  echoed  in  the  public  and  private 
expressions  that  accompanied  his  restoration.  Not- 
ably among  these  was  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  John 
A.  Broadus. 

Louisville,  Oct.  11,  1888. 
Dear  Brother  Curry: 

I  am  glad  to  think  of  you  as  at  home  in  our  own  country 
again,  and  again  wielding  all  the  educational  influence  you 
must  have  as  manager  of  the  Peabody  Fund.  I  think  our 
Southern  countrymen  have  gone  just  far  enough  in  respect 
of  popular  education  to  be  in  pressing  and  urgent  need  of 
going  further.  There  is  no  man  living  who  can  exert  so 
wide  and  wholesome  an  influence  among  them  as  you  can 
do,  in  the  position  you  hold,  and  with  all  your  eloquence, 
wisdom  and  personal  prestige.  Pardon  me.  I  should  not 
know  how  to  use  words  of  compliment  to  you.  I  am  only 
speaking  of  facts. 

I  notice  the  suggestion,  that  you  may  make  Washington 
your  home,  and  think  of  that  idea  also  with  pleasure;  al- 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       325 

though,  as  a  Virginian,  I  should  sympathize  with  the  Rich- 
mond folks  in  losing  your  residence.  Washington  would 
give  certain  advantages  for  making  your  educational  work. 
It  would  bring  you  into  free  association  with  the  adminis- 
tration and  the  legislators,  who  might  in  numerous  ways 
profit  by  your  wisdom  and  experience  as  a  statesman. 
And  you  could  do  no  little  good  there  as  a  Baptist.  I 
preached  four  Sundays  at  the  Calvary  Church  the  past 
summer,  and  got  the  conception  that  Washington  Bap- 
tists have  decided  possibilities  of  development.     .     .     . 

Your  Friend  and  Brother, 

John  A.  Broadus. 
Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

Of  his  second  period  of  service  under  the  Peabody 
Board,  and  indeed  of  his  general  relations  to  that 
Trust,  and  to  that  of  the  Slater  Fund,  Curry  has 
left  among  his  papers  some  notes  that  are  of  interest 
and  value,  and  that  have  hitherto  remained  un- 
published. 

Scrupulously,  in  the  discharge  of  my  duties,  as  General 
Manager  of  the  Peabody  and  the  Slater  Funds,  I  have  not 
permitted  any  political  or  sectional  or  denominational 
considerations  to  enter  into,  or  influence,  in  the  slightest 
degree,  my  action.  With  State  Superintendents,  whether 
Republican  or  Democratic,  my  relations  have  been  cor- 
dial. Official  intercourse  has  ripened  into  personal  friend- 
ship; and  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  as  I  wrote  to  an  appli- 
cant for  appointment  as  conductor  of  an  institute,  did  not 
now  run  through  political  geography,  and  with  my  consent 
should  never  run  through  Grammar  and  Arithmetic. 
.  .  .  When  Dr.  Stearns,  the  first  President  (of  the  Pea- 
body Normal  College)  died,  Mr.  Winthrop  put  it  upon  me 
to  find  and  to  recommend  to  the  Trustees  a  proper  succes- 
sor. The  choice  fell  on  Dr.  William  H.  Payne  of  Michigan, 
and  the  Trustees  sanctioned  by  an  election  the  recommen- 


326      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

dation.  ...  As  indicative  of  the  Catholic  poHcy  of 
the  Trustees,  and  of  my  spirit  and  aim,  I  may  say  that 
when  submitting  the  proposition  to  Dr.  Payne  to  become 
the  President,  I  enjoined  him  not  to  let  me  know  what 
were  his  political  or  denominational  preferences. 

One  college,  to  which  State  scholarships  were  assigned, 
was  not  considered  adequate  to  the  needs;  and  State  Nor- 
mal Schools  were  soon  organized  after  my  earnest  advo- 
cacy and  promise  of  aid  from  the  Fund.  For  the  further 
advancement  of  the  qualification  of  teachers,  summer 
schools  were  encouraged  and  aided.  A  few  public  schools 
in  the  several  States  were  aided  under  conditions  of  free 
tuition,  a  local  tax  and  nine  months'  session.  From  the 
organization  of  the  Trust,  a  rule  now  generally  known  as 
the  Peabody  rule,  and  frequently  adopted,  has  been  rigor- 
ously applied,  of  helping  those  who  help  themselves.  This 
largely  increases  the  gifts  to  schools  and  secures  local  vigi- 
lance and  increased  interest  in  education.  In  my  ministry 
of  education,  travelling  from  Potomac  to  Rio  Grande,  in- 
specting schools  and  colleges,  stimulating  hope  and  cour- 
age and  progress,  I  have  made  hundreds  of  educational 
speeches,  and  addressed,  some  times  several  times,  every 
Southern  legislature.  These  addresses  have  been  widely 
circulated,  and  they  and  my  Annual  Reports,  now  con- 
tained in  four  volumes,  are,  in  connection  with  the  invalu- 
able volumes  of  the  Bureau  of  Education,  probably  the 
most  complete  history  of  education  in  the  Southern 
States.    .    .    . 

As  frequent  inquiries  are  made  of  me  as  to  the  mode  of 
selecting  schools  for  Peabody  aid,  the  amount  given,  and 
the  transmission  of  the  money,  it  may  be  as  well  to  say 
that  all  power  in  the  management  of  the  Fund  is  reposed 
in  the  hands  of  the  Trustees,  who  meet  annually  to  receive 
and  pass  upon  the  report  of  the  Treasurer  and  General 
Agent,  and  to  transact  such  other  business  as  to  them  may 
seem  necessary.  Very  large  discretion  is  given  to  the  Gen- 
eral Agent  in  deciding  upon  the  disbursement  of  the  annual 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       327 

income  which,  in  the  autumn,  he  is  notified  will  be  avail- 
able, at  different  periods  in  the  coming  year,  for  school  pur- 
poses. Taking  that  amount  as  the  basis  of  action,  the 
General  Agent  makes  a  schedule  of  appropriations  cover- 
ing the  entire  amount.  From  time  to  time,  according  to 
what  may  be  available  in  different  months,  a  requisition, 
specifying  schools,  is  submitted  to  the  Executive  and  the 
Finance  Committees.  When  they  approve,  as  in  no  in- 
stance they  have  failed  to  do,  the  requisition  is  sent  to  the 
Treasurer,  .  .  .  and  he  promptly  notifies  me  that  the 
amount  asked  for  has  been  placed  in  the  bank  to  my  credit. 
Checks  are  drawn  on  the  bank  for  sums  approved  in  favor 
of  the  President  of  the  Normal  College,  or  of  the  State 
Superintendents  of  Education.  This  confinement  to  Su- 
perintendents is  because  the  Peabody  Fund  is  given  only 
in  aid  of  institutions  entirely,  or  in  part  controlled  by  the 
States.  For  these  checks  duplicate  receipts  are  returned, 
one  of  which  is  retained,  and  the  other  accompanies  my 
annual  account  as  a  voucher  for  auditing. 

Curry  carried  his  resolution  to  avoid  political 
partisanry  so  far,  that  in  the  Presidential  campaign 
of  1888,  in  which  Mr.  Cleveland  was  again  nominated 
for  the  presidency  of  the  Republic,  although  often 
urged  to  go  upon  the  hustings,  he  refrained  save  in 
the  single  instance  of  making  a  campaign  speech  a 
day  or  two  before  the  election  to  his  friends  and 
neighbors  in  Richmond.  Yet  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  politics  of  the  period  interested  him  tremen- 
dously. He  had  written  to  the  President  in  Decem- 
ber, 1887,  with  reference  to  the  Annual  Message  to 
Congress : — 

"You  have  drawn  the  attention  of  the  country 
from  'the  bloody  shirt,'  from  sectional  passion  and 
hate,  to  practical  measures,  to  fundamental  prin- 
ciples; "   and  in  the  same  letter  he  spoke  of  the 


328      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

message  in  terms  which  evinced  the  unabated  fires 
of  his  earher  democracy.  After  stating  that  until 
the  day  previous  to  the  date  of  his  letter,  when  the 
New  York  papers  had  brought  the  full  text  of  the 
message,  of  which  he  had  only  seen  an  abstract  in 
the  London  Times,  he  continues: — 

The  completed  paper  confirms  the  opinion  derived  from 
the  summary.  It  is  clear,  courageous,  statesmanlike. 
Judged  from  this  point  of  view,  I  would  not  change  a  word. 
It  has  the  ring  of  the  good  old  democratic  days  of  the  Re- 
public. It  reminds  me  of  the  utterances  of  Polk,  Wright 
and  Woodbury.  I  should  like  to  make  a  hundred  speeches 
in  the  Presidential  campaign  with  that  message  as  a  plat- 
form. 

The  message  discussed  the  great  question  of 
Federal  Taxation  from  the  standpoint  of  a  tariff  for 
revenue;  and  it  became  in  reality,  the  platform  of 
Mr.  Cleveland's  party  in  the  ensuing  presidential 
election,  when  that  issue  became  ''paramount." 
Immediately  upon  Curry's  landing  in  New  York,  he 
had  been  solicited  by  the  democratic  campaign 
managers  to  enter  the  canvass;  and  it  may  well  be 
imagined  that  the  old  spirit  of  the  political  debater 
stirred  him  deeply.  But  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  return  to  what  Mr.  Winthrop  habitually  spoke  of 
as  ''The  Great  Cause" — the  work  of  the  Peabody 
Fund;  and  his  wise  conception  of  the  duty  which 
he  owed  that  work  forbade  his  entrance  upon  the 
field  of  partisan  political  debate.  He  stuck  to  the 
text  which  he  had  laid  down  for  his  guidance  as 
Peabody  Agent,  with  a  persistence  which  did  not 
gainsay  any  political  conviction,  while  it  vindicated 
the  sanity  of  his  judgment. 

The  ill-health,  which  had  apparently  been  first 


THE    PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       329 

engendered  in  Spain,  returned  to  Curry  at  various 
times  in  1889  and  1890,  and  interfered  seriously  with 
his  work;  so  that  from  this  time  on  to  the  end  of 
his  busy  career,  he  was  a  sufferer.  It  was  probably 
one  of  these  acute  attacks  which  elicited  from  Mr. 
Winthrop  in  January,  1890,  the  sentiment: — 

I  wish  we  had  an  insurance  on  your  life, — not  one  from 
any  earthly  office,  but  from  the  Great  Disposer, — so  that  I 
might  be  assured  that  you  would  have  the  final  executor- 
ship of  the  Trust.  What  may  happen  to  me  is  of  little 
moment. 

Although  Curry,  as  above  stated,  made  it  his 
habit  to  eschew  the  activities  of  party  politics,  after 
associating  himself  with  the  Peabody  Trust,  he 
nevertheless  did  not  hesitate  to  grapple  boldly  with 
any  question  of  education,  without  regard  to  its 
creation  of  partisan  feeling.  This  is  strikingly  illus- 
trated in  his  relation  to  what  is  generally  known  in 
the  political  history  of  the  period  as  ''The  Blair  Bill." 

During  the  session  of  Congress  which  met  Decem- 
ber 3,  1883,  the  Republican  Senate  passed  the  Blair 
Education  Bill,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  give 
from  the  Federal  Treasury  certain  sums  of  money 
for  the  promotion  of  education  in  various  States,  the 
distribution  to  be  made  according  to  the  percentages 
of  illiteracy  in  the  populations.  It  was  defeated  in 
the  Democratic  House  of  Representatives,  of  which 
Mr.  Carlisle  was  then  the  Speaker.  In  1888  it  again 
passed  the  Senate  by  a  diminished  majority,  and 
was  again  defeated  in  the  House.  But  Democrats 
and  Republicans  were  alike  divided  on  the  measure; 
and  Curry,  though  never  recanting  his  adherence  to 
the  Calhoun  theories  of  constitutional  construction, 


330     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

espoused  the  cause  of  the  Biau*  Bill  with  enthusiasm. 
In  the  fall  of  1889  he  published  widely  in  the  news- 
papers appeals  for  National  Aid  to  Education. 
These  were  preliminary  to  a  pamphlet  which  he  later 
addressed  to  Congress.  Mr.  Winthrop  approved  of 
the  preparation  of  this  pamphlet,  although  it  does 
not  appear  that  he  knew  of  its  exact  language.  In 
it  Curry  referred  to  his  connection  with  the  Peabody 
Fund.  The  effect  of  the  pamphlet  on  the  Peabody 
Board  was  to  cause  one  of  its  most  distinguished 
members  to  threaten  resignation.  As  soon  as  Curry 
caught  the  wind,  he  was  also  ready  to  resign  as  Gen- 
eral Agent;  and  Mr.  Winthrop  seems  to  have  been 
in  great  distress.  The  ''prominent  member"  ob- 
jected, in  a  personal  letter  to  the  President  of  the 
Board,  to  the  pamphlet,  which  was  addressed  as 
''An  Appeal  to  Southern  Representatives  in  Congress 
and  to  the  Friends  of  Free  Schools  in  the  South,"  on 
the  grounds,  first,  of  the  "sectional"  reference; 
second,  because  Curry  referred  to  himself  in  the 
circular  as  General  Agent  of  the  Peabody  Fund. 
Winthrop  prevented  the  threatened  resignation  by 
showing  this  recalcitrant  member  that  the  Board 
had  years  before,  on  the  initiative  of  the  Hon.  Alex. 
H.  H.  Stuart  of  Virginia,  put  themselves  on  record 
as  favoring  "National  Aid,"  and  that  Curry's  action 
had  been  that  of  an  individual  rather  than  in  his 
representative  capacity.  The  trouble  was  healed; 
and  Mr.  Winthrop  wrote  of  its  conclusion  to  Curry: 
''Deus  dat  his  quoque  finem!^^ 

But  Winthrop  himself  had  been  as  eager  for  the 
passage  of  the  Blair  Bill  as  had  been  Curry;  and  its 
defeat  once  more,  in  March,  1890,  elicited  from  him 
the  following  letter: — 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       331 

Boston,  Mass., 
21  March,  1890. 
Dear  Dr.  Curry: 

This  morning's  papers  have  just  announced  to  me  the 
defeat  of  the  Blair  Bill.  It  is  no  surprise  to  me.  I  have 
long  felt  that  the  measure  was  doomed.  I  do  not  envy 
those  who  have  killed  it.  Sherman's  vote  has  astonished 
— I  may  better  say,  astounded — me.  Evarts  made  an  ex- 
cellent speech  but  did  not  convince  even  his  colleague  His- 
cock.  Hawley  seems  to  have  struck  the  fatal  blow.  I  am 
sorry  it  should  have  been  wielded  by  a  New  England  man. 
But  after  all,  the  death  of  the  measure  will  always  lie  at  the 
door  of  Carlisle  and  Randall,  who  for  successive  sessions 
have  smothered  the  Bill  in  the  House.  It  ought  to  have 
passed  by  a  unanimous  vote  in  both  branches  several  years 
ago.  Its  passage  now,  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  Vice- 
president,  or  by  any  meagre  majority,  would  have  been 
anything  but  satisfactory. 

I  have  always  thought  and  said  that  the  South  could 
have  the  National  Aid,  if  their  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives would  demand  and  sustain  it.  Daniel  and  Barbour, 
and  others  from  the  South,  have  done  excellent  work  for 
it.     .     .     . 

ROBT.    C.    WiNTHROP. 

Curry  had  written  to  Winthrop  a  month  earlier, 
in  explanation  of  his  pamphlet,  that  he  had  addressed 
it  to  the  ''Southern  Representatives"  and  to  the 
"Friends  of  Free  Schools  in  the  South,"  because  he 
felt  that  he  could  make  an  appeal  to  them  "as  a 
Southern  man,  alike  concerned  with  them  in  the 
proper  adjustment  of  the  most  terrible  problem 
that  Civilization  and  Free  Institutions  ever  en- 
countered." 

But,  after  all  is  said,  the  element  of  Education  was 
not  the  only  one  that  entered  into  the  national  legis- 


332      J.  L.  M.  CUBRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

lative  dealings  with  the  Blair  Bill;  and  it  was  not 
solely  the  work  of  the  two  democratic  Speakers  of 
the  House  which  killed  it,  as  Mr.  Winthrop  thought. 
The  old,  irrepressible  doctrine  of  the  rights  of  the 
States,  which  must  last  as  long  as  the  written  Con- 
stitution of  our  government  retains  significance, 
counted  for  more  in  the  contest  over  the  Blair  Bill 
than  the  casual  observer  may  have  thought;  and 
though  disciples  of  Calhoun,  like  Curry,  supported 
it,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  its  final  defeat  may 
be  conservatively  attributed  to  the  constitutional 
objection  of  its  opponents.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
Blair  Bill  was  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  Con- 
gress from  high,  just  motives;  and,  whatever  the 
political  view  of  it,  there  can  be  but  little  doubt 
that  its  defeat  retarded  educational  development  in 
the  South  seriously  for  two  generations. 

Later  in  the  year  1890  the  opportunity  was  offered 
Curry,  and  accepted  by  him,  of  enlarging  his  educa- 
tional work  in  the  South,  with  an  especial  view  to 
"the  adjustment  of  the  most  terrible  problem  that 
Civilization  and  Free  Institutions  ever  encountered," 
as  he  had  phrased  it  to  Winthrop,  and  the  considera- 
tion of  which  had  caused  the  latter  to  say  to  the 
former  in  a  letter  dated  Sept.  6,  1890:  ''Oh,  that  the 
Ethiopian  could  change  his  skin!  If  there  were  any 
mode  of  bleaching  the  negro,  our  land  would  be  at 
peace."  Under  date  of  October  31,  1890,  Curry 
writes  in  his  diary: — 

At  Rennert  Hotel  in  Baltimore  met  President  Hayes  by 
appointment,  who  wished  to  urge  my  acceptance  of  an  ap- 
pointment as  Chairman  of  Committee  of  Education  of 
Slater  Fmid,  to  manage  that  as  I  have  the  Peabody. 

Held  the  matter  under  consideration. 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       333 

November  5,  left  (Richmond)  for  New  York. 

Had  an  interview  with  Mr.  Winthrop  in  reference  to  my 
acceptance  of  the  administration  of  the  Slater  Fund. 
Much  gratified  at  offer.  Approves  my  taking  it  if  the 
labor  be  not  too  great. 

November  25,     .     .     .     Agreed  to  accept  the  position. 

Shortly  before  his  death,  Curry  wrote  the  follow- 
ing account  of  his  election  as  Manager  of  the  Slater 
Fund,  and  of  the  nature  and  uses  of  the  Fund  itself : — 

On  the  30th  October,  1890,  President  Hayes,  who  was 
President  of  the  Slater  Board,  wrote  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  the 
Chairman  of  the  Peabody  Trustees : — 

"The  General  Agent  of  the  John  F.  Slater  Education 
Fund  has  been  chosen  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
South.  This  deprives  the  Board  of  the  services  of  Bishop 
Haygood.  With  entire  unanimity  the  Slater  Board  now 
prefer  that  Dr.  Curry,  the  Agent  of  the  Peabody  Board, 
should  take  up  the  work  laid  down  by  Bishop  Haygood. 
He  is  elected  a  member  of  the  Slater  Board,  and  is  made 
Chairman  of  its  Educational  Committee,  and  will  have  an 
assistant.  Both  the  Chief  Justice  and  myself  approved  of 
the  plan,  and  I  am  very  solicitous  that  it  will  meet  your 
approval.  Dr.  Curry  will  write  you  in  regard  to  it.  In- 
deed, he  will  abide  by  your  judgment  in  the  matter." 

The  Peabody  Board  assenting,  I  accepted  the  position 
of  Chairman  of  the  Educational  Committee,  with  the  gen- 
eral powers  and  duties  exercised  by  Bishop  Haygood.  The 
sphere  of  operation  of  the  two  Funds,  and  the  general 
objects  being  partially  the  same, — the  Peabody  Fund 
being  for  the  benefit  of  both  races,  and  the  Slater  for  the 
colored  people, — it  seemed,  as  has  proved  to  be  true,  that 
the  administration  being  in  the  same  hands,  the  one  some- 
what supplementing  the  other,  there  would  be  no  conflict, 
but  increased  efficiency. 

The  Slater  Board  in  entrusting  the  general  management 


334      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

of  the  educational  problems  to  a  new  Agency,  declared 
that  it  favored  the  policy  of  concentration  upon  a  com- 
paratively small  number  of  institutions,  especially  deserv- 
ing encouragement,  paying  attention  to  geographical  posi- 
tion, to  business  methods,  to  service  rendered  in  training 
of  teachers,  and  to  efforts  made  in  the  promotion  of  indus- 
trial training.  Much  has  been  said  and  done  in  connec- 
tion with  industrial  training  in  schools;  and  not  a  few  un- 
warrantable claims  have  been  made  as  to  earliest  sugges- 
tion and  introduction.  The  Slater  Trustees  do  not  make 
any  such  pretensions  as  to  originating  what  has  long  had 
advocacy  and  adoption;  but  it  can  with  truth  be  said  that 
since  the  organization  of  the  Fund  aid  has  uniformly  been 
conditioned  upon  industrial  instruction.  In  the  Reports 
annually  made  to  the  Trustees,  and  in  the  occasional 
papers  which  the  Fund  had  published,  there  have  been  in 
the  presentation  of  the  Negro  problem,  strongest  insist- 
ence, for  national,  social,  moral,  individual  reasons,  upon 
industrial  and  manual  training,  and  upon  better  prepara- 
tion of  teachers  for  their  great  work.  The  author  of  this 
sketch  would  not  presumptuously  claim  any  undue  merit, 
but  he  confidently  appeals  to  the  published  and  emphatic 
testimonials,  borne  to  the  value  of  his  work  and  counsels  by 
the  principals  of  Tuskegee,  Spelman,  Hampton,  Claflin, 
Tongaloo,  and  other  colored  schools. 

It  may  be  pardonable  vanity  to  record  the  fact  that  in 
Marion,  Ala.,  in  1866,  aided  by  Gov.  Moore  and  Drs. 
Mcintosh  and  Raymond,  the  pastors  of  the  Baptist  and 
Presbyterian  Churches,  a  meeting  was  called  which  passed 
resolutions,  prepared  and  introduced  by  myself,  favoring 
the  education  of  the  colored  people  by  the  white  people 
of  the  South. 

Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington,  Principal  of  Tuskegee 
Institute,  the  most  far-seeing  man  of  his  race  in  his 
generation  in  America,  has  paid  eloquent  tribute  to 
this  view  of  Curry's,  with  regard  to  what  should 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN      335 

constitute  the  right  education  of  the  colored  people 
of  the  South,  in  a  monograph  entitled  "Education 
of  the  Negro,"  in  President  Nicholas  Murray  But- 
ler's ''Education  in  the  United  States".  In  a  brief 
letter  of  this  period,  Washington  summarizes  his 
philosophy  of  the  training  of  his  race  in  a  striking 
sentence : — 

TusKEGEE,  Ala.,  Oct.  24,  1898. 
Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
My  dear  Sir: 

Your  check  for  the  first  quarter's  Slater  Fund  money 
has  been  received  and  we  are  most  grateful. 

I  am  very  glad  that  you  like  my  Chicago  address.  It 
was  one  of  the  very  few  times  that  I  have  ever  referred 
to  race  prejudice,  because  I  realize  that  it  is  a  thing  that 
must  be  lived  down,  not  talked  down.  I  referred  to  it  as 
much  for  the  benefit  of  the  white  man  as  for  the  black 
man.  The  President  seemed  greatly  pleased  with  what 
I  said. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Booker  T.  Washington. 

President  Angell  adds  his  approbation  of  Curry's 
views  on  Negro  education  in  the  following  letter: — 

Ann  Arbor,  Dec.  26,  1895. 
My  dear  Dr.  Curry: 

I  have  read  your  Report  and  your  Slater  Paper  on 
Negro  Education  with  great  interest,  as  I  read  all  your 
writings  on  these  subjects.  I  have  not  been  in  the  far 
South  since  the  War,  and  cannot  well  judge  of  the  difficult 
features  of  the  problem.  But  I  know  they  are  difficult,  and 
I  am  glad  to  have  the  results  of  your  study  and  observa- 
tion. I  have  often  raised  in  my  own  mind  some  questions 
as  to  the  true  functions  of  the  schools,  which  our  religious 
bodies  are,  with  the  highest  motives,  supporting  in  the 


336     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

South.  It  will  be  a  great  relief  to  us,  if  the  South  can  her- 
self take  them  off  our  hands,  and  provide  the  needed  edu- 
cation. If  not,  then  a  wise  co-ordination  of  them  with  the 
public  school  system  should  be  sought.  I  take  it,  there 
must  be  some  provision  for  training  colored  teachers  and 
preachers.  I  often  quote,  and  I  shall  never  forget,  a  strik- 
ing remark  which  you  made  at  my  house:  "It  must  be 
eternally  right  to  Christianize  and  to  educate  the  Negro." 

Yours  very  truly, 

James  B.  Angell. 

That  the  Negro  needed  and  needs  to  be  both 
Christianized  and  educated  was  never  doubted  by 
Curry  from  the  dark  days  of  his  first  citizenship, 
when,  out  of  the  Egyptian  blackness  of  bondage  and 
comparative  heathenism,  he  was  suddenly  invested 
with  all  the  rights  and  duties  of  American  citizen- 
ship. That  he  could  be  both  Christianized  and  edu- 
cated, and  that  upon  his  Christianization  and  his 
right  education  rested  the  hope  of  his  race,  and  the 
safety  and  prosperity  of  the  white  race  with  whom  he 
dwelt,  were  likewise  maintained  by  Curry,  with  a 
zeal  and  enthusiasm  that  remained  unabated  to  the 
end,  and  were  worthy  of  the  praise  that  such  lofty 
and  unselfish  zeal  and  enthusiasm  should  always 
command. 

In  ''the  Publications  of  the  Southern  History  As- 
sociation" for  March,  1901,  more  than  five  years 
after  the  date  of  Dr.  Angell's  letter,  is  given  an  ac- 
count of  a  meeting  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  in 
May,  1900, — a  "conference  on  the  race  problems  of 
the  South,"  which  was  attended  by  and  enlisted  the 
most  earnest  consideration  and  thought  of  some  of 
the  best  intellects  of  the  country,  North  and  South; 
among  others  who  participated  in  its  deliberation 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN      337 

being  W.  Bourke  Cockran,  Herbert  Welsh,  Hilary 
A.  Herbert,  Clifton  R.  Breckinridge,  Paul  B.  Barrin- 
ger,  H.  B.  Frizell,  J.  D.  Dreher,  A.  M.  Waddell,  and 
J.  L.  M.  Curry.  The  account  states  that  "the  over- 
ruling note  sounding  through  all  their  words  was  pes- 
simistic. Economically,  morally,  religiously,  even 
physically,  this  sad  key  was  struck  time  and  again. 
There  was  one  variation  of  relief  to  the  solemn  strain, 
the  hope  placed  on  the  uplifting  power  of  education. 
Especially  was  this  emphasized  by  Dr.  Curry." 

With  all  of  his  ceaseless  work,  held  to  its  highest 
pitch  by  the  enthusiastic  will — the  vis  a  tergo — of  an 
unbending  and  dauntless  courage,  he  found  from 
year  to  year,  as  the  busy  man  always  finds,  new  time 
for  other  and  newer  work. 

In  a  letter  to  Winthrop  he  writes : — 

This  week  I  attended  the  Commencement  of  the  Normal 
School  at  Farmville.  As  I  drew  the  bill  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  School  and  the  Peabody  Fund  has  been  helpful 
in  its  assistance,  I  have  consented  to  continue  as  Trustee, 
while  firmly  declining  the  Presidency  of  the  Board. 

On  October  7,  1891,  Curry  was  unanimously 
elected  an  honorary  member  of  the  Peabody  Board, 
to  continue  in  that  position  so  long  as  he  should  re- 
main General  Agent  of  the  Fund.  On  the  next  day 
he  attended  a  meeting,  held  in  New  York  City,  of 
the  Educational  Committee  of  the  Slater  Fund,  of 
which  Committee  he  was  the  chairman.  Meetings 
of  the  Slater  Board,  or  of  the  Educational  Commit- 
tee, were  held  generally  twice  in  each  year;  and  the 
fall  meeting  was  usually  arranged  in  convenient  con- 
nection, as  to  time  and  place,  with  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  Peabody  Board.  The  dominating  figure  among 
the  Slater  Trustees  was  that  of  Ex-President  Hayes, 


338      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

between  whom  and  Curry,  as  has  heretofore  appeared 
in  these  pages,  had  existed  a  personal  friendship 
since  their  college  days  together  at  Harvard,  in  the 
early  '40's,  which  was  cemented  by  their  later  official 
associations  with  the  Peabody  and  Slater  Trusts.  In 
November  of  1891  Mr.  Hayes,  upon  the  invitation  of 
Curry,  accompanied  him  on  a  visit  to  the  States  of 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  and  Tennessee;  and  upon  this  tour  much 
appeared  of  a  character  to  interest  and  please  the  ex- 
President. 

Curry  relates,  among  others,  the  following  inci- 
dent of  their  journey: — 

While  visiting  schools  aided  from  the  Slater  and  Pea- 
body  Funds,  and  studying  educational  and  social  prob- 
lems, the  people  availed  themselves  cheerfully  of  a  coveted 
opportunity  of  greeting  an  ex-President,  and  showing  him 
a  grateful  appreciation  of  generous  action  for  their  relief 
from  military  authority  and  discriminating  disabilities. 
Riding  together  near  Orangeburg,  S.  C,  and  seeing  a  negro 
cabin  in  a  cotton  patch,  he  asked  whether  there  would  be 
any  impropriety  in  his  entering  it,  as  he  had  never  been 
inside  of  such  a  home.  Stopping  the  carriage,  I  conducted 
him  to  the  low,  dark,  illy-furnished,  one-room  cabin,  in 
which  was  a  woman,  with  a  very  young  babe  lying  in  a 
cradle.  He  examined  the  surroundings,  asked  in  kind 
manner  many  questions,  and  as  he  was  leaving  gave  her  a 
silver  dollar.  Unobserved  by  the  President,  I  told  the 
woman  who  her  visitor  was,  and  how  highly  she  had  been 
honored.  She  broke  out  into  exclamations  of  wonder  and 
praise,  clapping  her  hands  in  delight,  and  then  informed 
the  President,  arrested  by  her  jubilant  cries,  that  she 
would  give  the  baby  his  name. 

It  was  not  very  long  after  this  that  Curry  was 
called  upon  to  assist  in  paying  the  last  sad  tribute  of 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       339 

mortality  to  his  friend.  Mr.  Hayes  died  early  in 
January,  1893,  and  Curry  was  an  honorary  pall- 
bearer at  his  funeral.  As  an  example  of  their 
affectionate  relations  this  kindly  letter  from  Mr. 
Hayes  has  interest: — 

Spiegel  Grove,  Omo,  April  20,  1891. 
My  dear  Dr.  Curry: 

I  have  read  with  admiration  and  pleasure,  to  the 
last  syllable,  your  study  of  Gladstone.  It  is  so  wonder- 
fully good  that  I  must  be  excused  for  this  fervid  note. 
Your  little  book  is  most  attractive  and  statesmanlike. 
Gladstone's  matchless  career  is  excellently  told.  I  am, 
perhaps,  less  impressed  by  him  than  you  are.  I  turned 
to  Macaulay's  "Gladstone  on  Church  and  State."  M. 
speaks  of  G.'s  language  as  having  "a  certain  obscure 
dignity  and  sanctity."  This  gives  my  notion  of  his  style 
and  quality.  But  only  think  of  M.'s  article  written  in 
April  1839 — 52  years  ago — in  which  G.  is  spoken  of  as 
the  "rising  hope,"  "the  cautious  leader,"  etc.,  etc.,  and 
G.  still  "on  deck"  after  this  lapse  of  time!  Thanks  for 
the  book  and  sincere  congratulations  on  its  excellence. 

Faithfully, 

T^     ^  Rutherford  B.  Hayes. 

Dr.  Curry. 

In  his  journal  for  the  month  he  records  the  death 
of  three  illustrious  acquaintances — that  of  Ruther- 
ford B.  Hayes  on  the  17th;  of  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  on  the 
23rd,  and  of  James  G.  Blaine  on  the  24th.  In  a 
letter  to  his  son,  written  from  Madrid  in  Decem- 
ber, 1886,  he  compared  Mr.  Blaine  with  Mr.  Cleve- 
land, thus: — 

I  am  anxious  to  see  the  Message  of  the  President.  The 
spoils-hunting  Democrats  abuse  him,  but  he  is  a  man  of 
deep  convictions  and  of  sound  principles.  He  is  worth  a 
thousand  men  like  Blaine. 


340      J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

A  visit  with  his  wife  to  Europe  in  1892  broke  the 
monotony  of  his  educational  and  literary  labors, — 
for  during  his  most  exacting  work  as  representative 
of  the  two  great  educational  trusts  which  he  adminis- 
tered, he  found  time  to  do  a  large  amount  of  literary 
work  of  one  kind  or  another;  and  he  enjoyed  the  rest 
and  recreation  of  a  six  months'  journey  through 
France,  Germany,  Turkey,  Austria,  Italy  and  Switz- 
erland. 

Under  date  of  May  19,  1893,  he  writes  in  his  jour- 
nal the  following  interesting  item,  illustrating  the 
friendship  which  may  exist  between  democracy  and 
royalty : — 

Infanta  Eulalia,  Infante  Antoine  and  suite  arrived  in 
Washington  at  8:10  p.  m.  We  met  them  at  the  station, 
and  Infanta  gave  Mary  a  double  kiss. 

This  visit  of  members  of  the  royal  Spanish  house- 
hold was  incident  to  the  Columbian  Exposition  at 
Chicago;  and  during  the  latter  part  of  June,  at  Chi- 
cago, the  Currys  and  the  royal  party  were  much  to- 
gether. 

Among  the  distinguished  guests,  who  upon  occa- 
sion attended  the  annual  banquets  of  the  Peabody 
Board  in  New  York,  were  the  Honorable  Joseph 
Chamberlain,  M.  P.,  and  his  wife,  who  were  present 
at  the  banquet  of  October,  1893. 

Curry  writes  of  the  Englishman : — 

Chamberlain  spoke  contemptuously  of  Trevelyan; 
omitted  no  opportunity  of  making  a  fling  at  Gladstone; 
said  Pitt  was  the  greatest  of  English  statesmen.  The 
conversation  turning  on  the  Presidential  exercise  of  the 
veto  power,  I  remarked,  by  way  of  contrast,  that  its 
exercise  now  in  England  would  come  near  creating  a 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN      341 

revolution,  as  no  sovereign  since  Queen  Anne  had  inter- 
posed the  prerogative.  To  this  he  promptly  and  stoutly- 
objected,  and  said  it  had  been  used  several  times  "in  this 
century"  to  defeat  legislation.  I  knew  I  was  right,  but 
preferred  not  to  controvert  the  point  beyond  saying  that 
May's  Constitutional  History  of  England  was  my  au- 
thority. 

This  was  the  last  meeting  of  the  Peabody  Board  at 
which  Mr.  Winthrop  was  present.  At  the  meeting  of 
October,  1894,  his  address  was  read,  but  feeble 
health  prevented  his  personal  attendance.  His  death 
occurred  but  little  more  than  a  month  later.  On 
November  21  Curry  attended  his  funeral  at  Trinity 
Church,  Boston. 

As  above  stated,  Curry,  in  the  spare  moments  of 
his  active  and  busy  Ufe,  engaged  industriously  in  Ut- 
erary  pursuits.  -     ,         - 

"My  diplomatic  career  leaves  this  pleasant  remem- 
brance," he  writes  in  1891,  "I  did  aid  some  historical 
investigations.  Mr.  Alexander  Brown,  Mr.  John  Mason 
Brown,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea,  and  Mr.  J.  G.  Shea  have  been 
privately  profuse,  two  of  them  publicly  grateful,  in  their 
expressions  of  indebtedness  for  aid  I  had  the  happiness  to 
render  them  in  their  researches.  The  Government  ar- 
chives will  make  no  mention  of  this,  but  I  think  I  did  the 
country  some  service  in  this  incidental  way." 

And  at  an  earlier  date  he  had  written: — 

Apropos  of  the  4th  of  July,  I  have  been  able  to  find  in 
the  archives  at  Seville  copies  of  letters  written  by  Gov- 
ernor Patrick  Henry  to  the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  during 
the  Revolutionary  War.  Our  friend,  Wm.  Wirt  Henry, 
in  his  diligent  search  for  material  for  the  biography  he 
nearly  has  ready  for  the  press,  of  his  grandfather,  put  me 


342      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

on  the  track,  and  I  was  happy  in  being  able  to  unearth 
them.  During  my  residence  in  Madrid,  through  the 
partiahty  and  cheerful  co-operation  of  Spanish  officials, 
I  have  been  successful  in  furnishing  valuable  assistance  to 
Shea  of  New  Jersey,  the  Browns  of  Kentucky  and  Vir- 
ginia, Lea  of  Philadelphia,  Bowen  of  New  York,  in  their 
historical  researches. 

He  had,  himself,  written  during  his  stay  at  Madrid, 
"Constitutional  Government  in  Spain,"  which  was 
published  in  1889,  and  a  "Life  of  William  Ewart 
Gladstone,"  that  came  from  the  press  in  189 L  In 
1894  he  had  another  work  ready  for  publication,  on 
"The  Southern  States  of  the  American  Union," 
considered  in  their  relation  to  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Following  this  volume,  at  intervals 
of  three  or  four  years,  two  others  were  given  by  him 
to  the  public.  In  1898  appeared  from  the  Cam- 
bridge University  Press  a  "Sketch  of  George  Pea- 
body,  and  a  History  of  the  Peabody  Education 
Fund  through  Thirty  Years; "  and  in  1901  he  pub- 
lished his  last  and  perhaps  his  most  valuable  work — 
a  "Civil  History  of  the  Government  of  the  Con- 
federate States,  with  some  Personal  Reminiscences." 

Space  does  not  admit  of  a  discussion  in  these  pages 
of  Curry's  books.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  of  them  that 
they  illustrate  the  writer's  industry  and  ability;  and 
are  works  of  serious  purpose  and  solid  merit,  though 
lacking  in  the  charm  and  attractiveness  of  his  spoken 
discourse. 

Of  his  volume  on  "The  Southern  States  of  the 
American  Union,"  William  L.  Wilson,  a  fine  and 
scholarly  figure  in  recent  American  politics,  wrote 
him  a  letter  which  has  value  and  interest  in  the 
light  of  the  course  of  events  in  the  past  fifteen  years. 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       343 

Office  of  Postmaster  General, 
Washington,  D.  C,  Nov.  28,  1895. 
My  dear  Doctor  Curry: 

I  have  waited  until  I  could  look  over  the  pages  of  the 
printed  book,  you  so  kindly  permitted  to  read  in  MS. 
before  sending  you  my  acknowledgment  of  the  copy  you 
left  for  me  at  my  office.  To-day  I  have  enjoyed  for  the 
first  time  an  opportunity  of  re-reading  some  of  its  chapters, 
and  I  repeat,  with  unqualified  emphasis,  my  first  judg- 
ment:— That  such  a  book  ought  to  be  written,  and  that 
you  have  written  the  needed  volume.  It  seems  to  me  to 
lack  nothing  in  compactness,  clearness,  and  unflinching 
truth  of  statement  and  historic  authentication. 

To  reconstruct  ideas  and  opinions  adverse  to  the  South, 
in  so  far  as  they  are  founded  on  ignorance  and  prejudice, 
is  becoming  more  and  more  the  task  of  Sisyphus.  Your 
book  ought,  at  least,  to  restore  the  proper  historic  per- 
spective to  the  present  generation  of  Southerners  who  are 
without  "prejudice,"  and  to  compel  a  re-examination  of 
the  record  from  the  fair-minded  and  honest  student  of 
history  in  all  sections.  And  it  delights  me  to  hear  that 
it  is  having  a  large  circulation.  It  cannot  but  influence 
the  final  judgment  of  the  future.  I  cannot  see  how  it 
could  have  been  written  by  any  one  who  had  not  lived 
in,  and  borne  his  part  in,  the  great  struggles  of  the  last 
forty  years;  and  coming  from  you,  who  have  done  so 
much,  since  the  warlike  part  of  those  struggles  ended,  to 
restore  fraternity  of  spirit  as  well  as  of  poHtical  association, 
it  ought  to  arrest  the  attention  and  reform  the  judgment 
of  every  teacher  of  history  in  college  or  university.  You, 
and  I,  in  my  humble  way,  have  felt  that  our  highest  duty 
to  our  own  section  lay  in  devotion  to  the  best  interests  of 
the  whole  country,  and  in  the  steady  advocacy  of  national 
issues  great  enough  to  wipe  out  sectionahsm.  I  rejoiced 
in  the  great  tariff  struggle,  not  only  because  we  were 
fighting  for  a  true  national  policy,  but  because  I  saw  how 
effectually   the   rise   of   that   question   had   obliterated 


344      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

geographical  lines.  To-day  I  have  been  more  than  usually 
despondent,  as  I  see  how  the  folly  of  our  Southern  people 
in  taking  up  a  false  and  destructive  issue,  and  assaulting 
the  very  foundations  of  public  and  private  credit,  are 
throwing  away  the  solid  fruits  of  the  great  victory,  solidi- 
fying the  North  as  it  never  was  solid  in  the  burning  days 
of  reconstruction,  and  condemning  the  South  to  a  position 
of  inferiority,  and  of  lessening  influence  in  the  Union,  she 
has  never  before  reached,  I  am  amazed  at  the  blind- 
ness of  leaders  and  followers,  and  deeply  feel  its  reflex 
influence  on  all  the  past  record  of  that  section;  and  how 
much  harder  it  makes  the  task  you  have  so  conscientiously 
performed. 

But  I  must  not  use  my  leisure  hour  to  inflict  too  long 
a  letter  on  you.  Let  me  thank  you  again  for  writing  this 
volume,  and  tender  my  gratitude  for  the  copy  you  have 
given  me. 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

Wm.  L.  Wilson. 
Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

Again  and  for  the  sixth  time  Curry  sailed  for 
Europe  in  January  of  1895,  and  arrived  at  Rome  on 
the  first  day  of  the  following  month,  whither  Mrs. 
Curry  had  preceded  him.  Here  he  visited  his  old 
friend,  Cardinal  Rampolla;  and  later  spent  some 
time  in  the  island  of  Corfu,  and  in  various  points  of 
Greece.  A  letter  to  his  grandchildren  displays  the 
tender  nature  and  eager,  observing  spirit  which  kept 
him  young  to  the  end: — 

On  Steamer  "Vesta,"  Adriatic  Sea. 
19  Apr.  95. 
My  dear  Children: 

I  send  this  congratulating  Mary  L.  and  Manly  on  their 
birthdays  and  wishing  them  health,  happiness  and  pros- 
perity. 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       345 

My  last  letter  was  posted  at  Corinth.  By  rail  we 
travelled  from  there  to  Mycenae,  the  home  of  Agamemnon, 
the  leader  of  the  Greeks  in  the  Trojan  war.  Here  Dr. 
Schlieman  found  the  rich  golden  treasures  in  the  royal 
tombs,  of  which  I  wrote  you,  as  being  preserved  in  the 
National  Museum  at  Athens.  By  carriage  we  drove 
through  the  Argolese  plain,  fertile  and  dry,  delightful  in 
the  twilight,  to  Nauplia. 

Naples.  21st. — En  route  to  N.  we  visited  the  Herseon, 
the  ancient  national  sanctuary  of  Argolis,  corresponding 
to  the  Acropolis  in  Athens.  We  had  to  leave  our  carriage 
half  an  hour  away  and  climb  the  rough  ascent,  but  one 
of  the  young  men  met  us  and  gave  us  a  cordial  welcome, 
and  also  a  cup  of  refreshing  tea.  The  excavations  of 
late  years  have  been  made  by,  or  under  the  supervision 
of  various  archaeological  societies,  Greek,  German  and 
American.  These  ruins  are  made  by  the  American  School. 
Work  was  suspended  because  of  Easter,  but  we  saw  Hop- 
pin,  Tilton,  Rogers  and  others.  These  and  others  are 
distinguished  graduates  of  our  universities,  who  receive 
fellowships  because  of  their  excellent  scholarships. 

Epidaurus,  on  the  east  of  the  Peloponnesus,  has  a  most 
magnificent  and  well-preserved  ruin  of  a  temple,  which  is 
very  large  and  was  constructed  against  a  semi-circular 
mountain.  The  acoustics  were  very  remarkable.  From 
the  uppermost  seat,  190  feet  distant  from  and  75  feet 
above  the  orchestra,  a  low  tone  of  voice  could  be  heard. 
Here  also  was  a  temple  for  the  cult  of  ^sculapius,  the  god 
of  healing.  One  is  puzzled  to  know  how  these  immense  and 
costly  structures  could  have  been  built  in  a  country  not 
densely  populated  and  not  rich.  We  wandered  over  the 
remains  of  these  old  buildings,  put  up  2500  years  ago  and 
were  compensated  for  an  all-day  carriage  ride. 

Nauplia  is  built  on  a  kind  of  promontory,  projecting 
into  the  sea,  was  the  first  capitol  of  the  modern  Greek 
kingdom,  is  the  seat  of  an  arch-episcopate,  and  has  some 
commerce.     We   were   there   during   Good   Friday   and 


346      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Easter  evening,  and  going  on  the  night  before  Easter,  or 
rather  at  the  midnight  of  Easter,  was  a  grand  religious 
ceremony.  The  church  was  packed  with  people,  each  one 
of  whom,  old  or  young,  male  and  female,  held  in  hand  a 
long  unlighted  candle.  When  the  clock  struck  twelve, 
the  archbishop  in  his  clerical  vestments,  a  tall  handsome 
man,  came  through  a  narrow  door,  behind  the  main  altar, 
holding  a  silver  candelabra  with  six  branches,  each  having 
a  lighted  candle.  On  his  appearance,  many,  mainly 
boys,  rushed  forward  to  light  their  candles.  The  arch- 
bishop drew  back  and  reproved  the  irreverent  eagerness, 
and  then  less  violently,  candles  were  lit  from  his.  As  he 
opened  the  door,  I  should  have  said  that  he  proclaimed, 
"The  Lord  is  risen  indeed."  The  whole  assembly  pro- 
ceeded to  the  plaza  in  front  of  the  church,  where  a  rude 
but  decorated  platform  was  erected.  On  it  were  seated 
or  standing  military  and  civil  officers  and  the  archbishop. 
When  the  last  read  the  Evangel,  a  procession  was  formed, 
which  marched  through  the  streets,  singing,  firing  crack- 
ers, shooting  off  rockets  and  giving  vent  to  their  joy, 
which  however  interesting  to  them,  kept  us  from  sleep- 
ing. 

Looking  out,  early  Easter  morning,  on  the  square  in 
front  of  the  hotel,  we  saw  the  soldiers  roasting  their 
paschal  lambs  or  sheep,  cleaned  and  disemboweled,  the 
carcass  had  thrust  through  it,  from  head  to  tail,  a  long 
pole  or  spit,  which  by  two  men,  was  slowly  revolved,  near 
embers  or  ashes  until  the  meat  was  thoroughly  roasted 
and  looked  very  appetizing.  Some  kind  of  sauce,  the  in- 
gredients of  which  were  salt,  pepper  and  lemon  juice  (not 
vinegar)  was,  from  time  to  time,  put  upon  the  turning 
body.  Easter,  besides  being  a  religious  festival,  is  a 
national  holiday,  and  little  work  is  done  in  shop  or  field, 
until  the  following  Thursday.  Every  family,  even  the 
poorest,  has  a  lamb  roasted,  and  this  consumption  of 
mutton  helps  to  account  for  the  great  number  of  sheep 
which  are  to  be  found  in  Greece.     We  saw  thousands, 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN      347 

which  in  a  few  days,  will  be  driven  to  the  mountains  for 
pasturage.  On  the  streets  and  in  the  villages  we  saw  the 
lambs  roasting,  and  officers  and  soldiers  take  meals  to- 
gether, for  Easter  equalizes  all  ranks. 

I  had  long  had  a  desire  to  see  a  baptism  performed  after 
the  Greek  ritual  and  on  Easter  night  I  had  the  curiosity- 
gratified.  The  ceremony  took  about  20  minutes  for  its 
performance,  and  was  participated  in  by  priests,  respon- 
sive choristers,  mother,  godfather,  and  witnessed  by 
about  thirty  persons.  Places  of  honor  were  assigned  to 
us  and  after  the  baptism,  parents,  priests,  and  others 
shook  hands  with  us.  A  tin  basin,  near  the  middle  of  the 
church,  was  more  than  half  filled  with  water  and  oil  was 
added,  while  the  priest  read  the  ritual.  He  made  a  cross 
with  his  hand  three  times  in  the  water;  subsequently 
breathed  upon  it  three  times,  each  time  making  a  cross  in 
the  water.  The  child  having  been  undressed  was  held  by 
the  godfather,  and  the  priest  anointed  head,  hands  and  feet 
with  oil,  and  then  besmeared  the  body.  Soon  afterwards, 
he  immersed  the  little  fellow,  about  six  months  old,  three 
times  in  the  water,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  When  the  clothes  were  put  on, 
a  charge  was  given  to  the  godfather,  who  repeated  it  to 
the  mother.  I  was  asked  to  name  the  child,  but  as  neither 
Jabez  nor  Lamar  could  be  readily  Grecized,  I  suggested 
William,  the  name  of  my  friend,  Mr.  Kingsland,  who 
was  rich  and  believed  in  baptism  of  babies.  It  is  the 
custom  for  the  one  who  gives  the  name  to  give  a  suit  of 
clothes,  and  my  friend  readily  "shelled  out"  twenty  dol- 
lars in  gold.  When  we  were  in  the  train  the  next  morning, 
father,  mother,  baby,  brothers,  grandparents  came  to 
take  leave  of  us,  evidently  pleased  that  "Guhelmus"  had 
such  a  good  start  in  life. 

We  had  a  long  day's  travel  to  reach  Patras,  our  road, 
as  when  we  visited  Athens,  skirting  the  Gulf  of  Corinth. 
It  is  a  pity  that  the  Canal  between  the  Gulf  and  the 
Eastern  waters  is  too  narrow  a  shelter  for  large  vessels, 


348     J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

as  the  route  would  be  most  charming  for  visitors  to  the 
classic  land. 

During  our  stay  in  the  Peloponnesus  we  had  the  services 
of  an  industrious  and  polite  dragoman,  who  was  a  good 
commissary  and  quartermaster,  and  an  unscrupulous 
extortioner. 

The  night  we  reached  Patras,  about  twelve  o'clock, 
a  fire  broke  out  near  the  hotel  and  all  the  town  gathered 
to  witness  the  sight.  We  packed  trunk  and  bags  and 
made  ready  for  a  precipitate  exodus,  but  were  saved  that 
experience. 

To-morrow  Dr.  Taylor  and  I  will  start  to  Sicily, 

With  best  love  from  both  of  us  to  all,  we  are, 

Yours  lovingly, 

J.  L.  M.  Curry. 
Manly  Curry  Turpin, 
Mary  Lamar  Turpin, 

Americus,  Georgia. 

May  found  him  and  his  wife  in  Florence,  where 
he  gave  sittings  to  a  sculptor  for  a  marble  bust, 
which  was  completed  in  the  following  November. 
In  March  he  met  Goldwin  Smith  and  left  a  little 
thumb-nail  sketch  of  him  which  is  worth  quoting: — 

In  1861,  Arnold  wrote  of  him,  "personally,  a  most  able, 
in  some  respects  even  interesting  man."  At  a  dinner  at 
which  he  was  present  in  Washington  City,  26  March,  1896, 
he  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  soured,  discontented  man.  Of 
Chamberlain,  "able  without  morals;"  Gladstone,  "writes 
on  theology  and  science  about  which  he  is  ignorant;" 
Palmerston,  "a  Russophobist; "  Napoleon,  "wanted 
European  recognition,  and  brought  on  the  Crimean  War," 
which  all  regretted  afterwards.  He  (Smith)  saw  no  reason 
why  Russia  should  not  have  an  outlet  to  Mediterranean. 
"The  Jews  are  getting  behind  the  press,  in  Europe  and 
America." 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN      349 

During  the  years  1896  and  1897  Curry  appears  to 
have  been  especially  interested  in  those  concerted 
movements  in  America  in  favor  of  the  World's 
Peace,  which  were  then  claiming,  and  have  since 
continued  to  claim  wide  attention.  At  Washington 
in  April,  1896,  a  National  Arbitration  Conference 
for  the  promotion  of  international  arbitration,  at 
which  more  than  forty  states  of  the  Union  were 
represented,  was  in  session  for  two  days.  Curry 
was  appointed  by  this  assembly  one  of  a  committee 
of  five,  with  George  F.  Edmunds,  James  B.  Angell, 
Henry  Hitchcock,  and  Gardiner  G.  Hubbard,  to 
prepare  and  present  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  a  memorial  in  behalf  of  the  accompanying 
resolution  of  the  Conference;  and  this  memorial  was 
personally  presented  to  Mr.  Cleveland  by  a  sub- 
committee composed  of  Messrs.  Curry  and  Hubbard 
on  May  14th.  Curry's  interest  in  international 
arbitration  is  again  evidenced  in  January,  1897,  by 
the  following  entry  in  this  journal: — 

January  18. — At  5  p.  m.  at  Hon.  John  W.  Foster's 
attended  a  conference  to  promote  the  ratification  of  the 
Anglo-American  Treaty. 

In  this  connection  at  subsequent  dates  appeared 
in  the  journal  these  entries,  significant  of  his  con- 
tinued attitude  towards  the  great  question  of  the 
World's  Peace: — 

February  27,  1897. — Called  and  took  leave  of  President 
Cleveland.  Evidently  moved.  Had  little  to  encourage 
him,  amid  so  much  partisanship  and  treachery  except 
assurance  of  confidence  of  friends  and  the  consciousness 
of  duty  done.     It  seemed  as  if  some  Senators  were  trying 


350      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

to  precipitate  a  war  with  Spain.  Had  gloomy  forebodings 
as  to  party  and  country. 

March  28,  1898. — To  the  House,  and  heard  President 
McKinley's  Message  transmitting  Report  of  Court  of 
Inquiry  on  "  Maine  "  disaster. 

Galleries  packed. 

March  29. — Dinner  to  Senator  Gorman  by  Governor 
Carroll.  Mr.  Thompson,  Senators  Allison,  Gray,  and 
Hale,  Speaker  Reed,  Justice  White,  Mr.  Barrett,  Ad- 
miral     ,    General    ,    and    myself.     All 

opposed  to  war.  Speaker  and  Senators  despondent; 
thought  insane  war  feeling  would  plunge  us  into  untold 
trouble. 

On  October  6,  1896,  a  special  committee  of  the 
Peabody  Board  of  Trustees  met  in  New  York  City, 
to  consider  the  expediency  of  terminating  the  Trust 
in  the  following  February.  After  due  deliberation, 
they  decided  to  report  an  adverse  judgment;  and  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Board  the  next  day,  the  decision 
of  the  committee  was  unanimously  confirmed. 
Curry  submitted  his  annual  Report;  and  was  re- 
elected General  Agent. 

Perhaps  no  year  of  his  career  was  a  busier  one  in 
the  work  done  by  him  with  State  legislatures  than 
was  that  of  1897. 

He  appeared  before  the  legislative  bodies  of  the 
States  of  North  Carolina,  Arkansas,  Texas,  Florida 
and  Georgia,  and  made  addresses  on  behalf  of  edu- 
cation. 

Uninterrupted  and  incessant  work  was  the  main- 
spring of  his  life.  His  interest  in  life  never  failed 
him  and  he  could  not  deny  himself  to  popular  de- 
mand. When  not  urging  upon  State  legislative 
assemblies  the  importance  and  necessities  of  edu- 
cating the  people,  his  energies  were  spent  in  other 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       351 

directions  no  less  significant.  In  1898  he  addressed, 
among  other  bodies  and  gatherings  of  influence,  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  the  State  of  Louisiana; 
and  he  spoke  later  in  the  year  at  the  opening  of  the 
Domestic  Science  Building  at  Hampton,  upon  the 
thirtieth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the 
Hampton  School.  On  the  fourth  of  July,  at  Chicago, 
he  delivered  an  address  to  the  assembled  faculties, 
students  and  patrons  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
on  the  "Principles,  Acts,  and  Utterances  of  John  C. 
Calhoun,  Promotive  of  the  True  Union  of  the  States." 

With  all  his  unabated  loyalty  to  the  people  of  his 
section  of  the  Union,  and  to  the  memories  of  the 
tremendous  conflict  in  which  they  had  once  engaged 
in  behalf  of  their  view  of  constitutional  liberty,  it 
may  be  said  of  Curry  with  absolute  truthfulness, 
that  the  most  impressive  thing  about  him  in  his 
post-bellum  period  was  his  intense  and  shining 
Americanism.  He  must  figure  always  in  the  thought 
of  those,  who  know  his  life  and  have  followed  his 
career,  rather  as  an  American  than  as  an  Alabamian 
or  a  Virginian  or  a  Southerner.  He  had  believed  in 
his  youth,  with  a  passionate  belief,  in  the  theoretical 
ethics  of  secession.  He  did  not  change  that  belief 
in  his  old  age,  and  after  varied  experiences.  Calhoun 
was  second  only  to  Aristotle  in  his  regard;  albeit 
the  flag  of  the  Union  stirred  his  highest  eloquence, 
and  the  great,  unrended  nation,  with  its  dreams,  its 
needs,  its  perils,  its  ideals  had  come  to  appeal  to  him 
as  did  nothing  else  on  earth. 

At  the  moment,  on  the  4th  of  July,  in  that  summer 
of  1898,  when  he  was  making  this  address,  just  men- 
tioned, before  the  University  of  Chicago,  in  the 
waters  about  Santiago  the  American  warships  were 


352      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

thundering  out  the  knell  of  Spanish  rule  within  the 
Western  Hemisphere.  As  he  was  defending,  with  all 
the  power  and  passion  of  his  mind  and  heart,  the 
constitutional  orthodoxy  of  the  great  South  Carolin- 
ian's theory  of  the  Federal  Government,  at  intervals 
a  messenger  boy  would  arrive  upon  the  scene  with  a 
telegram;  and  the  proceedings  were  interrupted, 
while  the  announcement  was  read  of  the  destruction 
of  another  and  yet  another  Spanish  ship,  amid  the 
patriotic  applause  of  the  audience.  Then  the  speaker 
would  turn  to  the  Star-Spangled  Banner,  draping  the 
platform,  and  make  it  the  basis  of  an  appeal  for  unity 
and  nationality;  and  after  the  applause  had  died 
away,  would  revert  again  to  Calhoun  and  his  great 
philosophy  of  government,  without  a  lost  note  in  his 
eloquence. 

To  have  passed  a  morning  with  John  Caldwell 
Calhoun,  Santiago  and  the  American  flag  vividly  en- 
twined before  the  face  of  an  American  audience,  was 
something  more  than  interesting  or  dramatic  in  the 
man  who  accomplished  it.  In  it  an  essential  charac- 
teristic of  his  being  stood  revealed.  His  real  genius 
and  passion  were  for  adaptability  to  environment 
without  the  surrender  of  principle, — for  sympathy 
with  his  time, — for  service  on  the  side  of  its  better 
forces, — for  the  future,  despite  the  past.  Two  letters 
referring  to  this  address  from  antipodal  sources  illus- 
trate vividly  his  power  of  appeal  and  the  strength 
of  his  contention: — 

54  Wall  Street,  New  York,  ^ 

T.^  T^     ^  January  20th,  1898. 

My  dear  Dr.  Curry:  "^  ' 

Thank  you  very  much  for  yours  of  the  17th.     I  can 

hardly  tell  you  how  much  I  value  your  favorable  opinion, 

even  while  I  think  it  too  eulogistic. 


THE    PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       353 

To  say  the  truth  I  was  not  in  very  good  trim  while 
writing  it  and  feared  that  it  was  a  mere  collection  of 
common-places.  I  came  to  think  a  little  better  of  it 
before  I  dehvered  it,  and  after  hearing  what  you  and  others 
have  said,  I  am  quite  puffed  up. 

You  have  a  very  interesting  subject  to  deal  with  at 
Chicago.  I  have  long  been  of  the  belief  that  the  ani- 
mating motive  of  all  the  later  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  efforts 
was  his  love  of  the  Union  and  his  deep  concern  lest  it 
should  fail, — not  that  he  would  sacrifice  the  South  to 
it, — I  do  not  expect  men  to  give  up  kindred  and  firesides — 
but  the  fear  which  harassed  him  without  cessation  was 
that  the  feeling  between  North  and  South  would  be 
brought  to  such  a  point  and  so  influence  action,  that  a 
rupture  would  follow. 

You  may  not  find  so  concurring  an  audience  as  I  did. 

With  very  high  esteem  and  regard. 

Truly  yours, 

James  C.  Carter. 
J.  L.  M.  Curry,  LL.D. 

157  State  Street,  Montpelier,  Vt. 

My  dear  old  Friend  : 

I  have  no  words  adequately  to  express  my  admiration 
of  your  wonderfully  condensed  and  powerful  statement 
of  the  respective  rights  of  the  States  and  the  delegated 
powers  of  the  General  Government. 

I  can  hardly  keep  silence  when  I  hear  our  young  people, 
the  future  conservators  of  our  liberties,  prating  about 
"the  arbitrament  of  war  settling  the  question  of  the  right 
of  secession"  and  I  am  very  glad  you  explained  that  war 
neither  settled  or  impaired  any  fundamental  right,  though 
it  might  prove  the  power  to  nullify  it  for  a  time. 

Your  explanation  of  the  primary  cause  of  Mr.  Calhoun's 
nullification  theory  is  the  one  which  those  who  knew  him 
best   always   recognized — his  overweening  love   for  the 


354      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Union  and  passionate  desire  to  preserve  it,  which  caused 
him  to  overlook  the  dangers  of  the  remedy  he  advocated. 

Your  whole  address  forcibly  reminds  me  of  the  appeals 
to  which  I  have  listened  with  breathless  attention  from 
dear  Mr.  Calhoun  in  the  last  years  of  his  life  when  his 
mind  dominated  his  fragile  body  so  entirely  that  it  rose 
almost  into  the  realms  of  omniscient  foresight  and  poured 
out  the  cumulative  wisdom  of  his  noble  statesmanship 
in  such  terse  argument  that  the  loss  of  a  word  or  part  of 
a  sentence  seemed  a  misfortune. 

Old  and  feeble  as  I  am  I  should  have  been  glad  to  go  to 
Chicago  to  hear  one  more  "old  man  eloquent,"  one  more 
large  minded  statesman  with  "hands  unstained  with 
plunder"  plead  for  the  restoration  of  our  inalienable 
liberty — and  resting  his  efforts  not  on  the  adventitious 
aid  and  appeals  of  that  eloquence  of  which  I  know  you 
to  be  a  past  master,  but  on  the  clear  concise  recital  of 
great  truths  based  upon  incontrovertible  authority. 

I  never  could  understand  the  basic  stability  of  Russia's 
despotism  until  I  discovered  in  reading  a  history  of  the 
country  that  every  little  hamlet  has  its  community  in- 
dependence with  which  the  general  despotism  dare  not 
interfere. 

I  have  for  some  time  wanted  to  ask  a  favor  of  you.  My 
husband's  tombstone  can  only  receive  100  words  of 
epitaph,  and  it  is  now  ready  for  that  so  that  it  can  be  set 
in  place  before  his  statue,  when  it  is  finished,  can  be 
erected  and  unveiled  in  October  next.  Will  you  send  me 
one  for  it.  I  have  asked  the  same  favor  from  several 
friends  in  different  parts  of  the  South  so  that  I  may  get 
one  of  which  all  who  loved  him  will  approve  and  will  then 
try  to  choose  the  one  most  suitable  for  it.  May  I  have 
one  from  you?  An  epitaph  is  to  me  the  verdict  of  his 
contemporaries  and  I  attach  great  importance  to  it  for 
posterity. 

I  am  living  here  getting  such  comfort  as  I  can  from  the 
magnificent   scenery   and   the   quiet   of  this   little   New 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       355 

England  town  and  shall  not  leave  here  until  the  end  of 
September  when  I  shall  return  to  New  York.  I  went 
South  last  Spring  and  dismantled  my  house  as  the  risk 
of  leaving  valuable  things  there  was  great,  and  without 
my  darling  I  could  not  live  in  that  isolated  place  alone. 
Now  I  "find  my  warmest  welcome  in  an  inn"  and  for 
the  little  time  left  to  me  on  earth  it  is  easier  than  house- 
keeping— and  I  feel  like  a  lotus  eater — and  am  willing 
to  float  without  resistance  to  circumstance. 

With  much  love  to  Mrs.  Curry  and  thanks  for  your 
address, 

Yours  affectionately, 

V.  Jefferson  Davis. 

July  31st,  1898. 

On  November  12,  1898,  Curry  and  his  wife,  in  com- 
pany with  several  intimate  friends,  sailed  for  Naples. 
They  spent  a  month  or  more  at  Baiae  and  other 
places  in  the  vicinity,  in  an  atmosphere  of  old  world 
memories  and  Horatian  measures;  and  in  the  last 
days  of  December  crossed  the  Mediterranean,  and 
sojourned  for  a  month  or  more  of  the  New  Year  in 
Egypt.  There  they  were  presented  to  the  Khedive; 
and  amid  the  ancient  glories  of  the  Pyramids  and  the 
impressive  ruins  of  Karnak  and  of  Thebes,  Curry's 
thoughts  turned  jBrst  of  all  to,  and  remained  longest 
with  the  Egyptian  schools.  The  heroic  stories  of 
Omdurman  and  Khartum — of  the  wild  charge  of  the 
white-robed  dervishes  and  the  fate  of  ''Chinese  Gor- 
don"— all  came  in  for  their  full  share  of  eager  atten- 
tion; but  his  most  earnest  contemplation  of  Egypt 
was  of  its  missions  and  of  the  agencies  of  education 
developing  in  the  ancient  land. 

Leaving  the  Nile  Valley  on  St.  Valentine's  Day, 
they  reached  Naples  again  on  the  17th  of  February; 


356     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

and  after  spending  a  few  days  in  Rome,  Monte  Carlo 
and  Paris,  Curry  and  his  wife  arrived  at  New  York  in 
the  latter  part  of  March. 

Under  date  of  April  6,  1899,  he  writes  in  his 
diary: — 

Called  on  President  McKinley,  who  received  me  cor- 
dially. I  told  him  Lord  Cromer's  opinion  that  the 
government  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  would  be  found  more 
difficult  than  that  of  the  Philippines;  and  he  said  he  con- 
curred, especially  as  to  Cuba. 

In  June,  1899,  Curry  was  elected  the  second  Presi- 
dent of  the  recently  established  Educational  Con- 
ference that  met  at  Capon  Springs,  West  Virginia. 
Bishop  Dudley  of  Kentucky  had  preceded  him  in  the 
presidency  of  the  Capon  Springs  Conference,  and 
Dudley  had  been  succeeded  in  that  office  by  Mr. 
Robert  C.  Ogden  of  New  York. 

The  fourth  Conference,  which  would  have  met  ac- 
cording to  custom  at  Capon  Springs,  was  diverted  by 
the  death  of  the  proprietor  of  the  hotel  at  that  place 
to  Winston-Salem,  N.  C.  Here,  under  the  inspiring  in- 
fluence and  untiring  energy  of  the  new  President,  Mr. 
Robert  C.  Ogden,  were  set  in  motion  the  forces  that 
finally  resulted  in  the  organization  of  the  Southern 
Education  Board  in  New  York  City  on  Novem- 
ber 3,  1901.  Dr.  Curry  was  present  at  the  organiza- 
tion of  this  new  and  vital  force  in  American  educa- 
tional life,  was  made  its  supervising  director,  and 
seemed  to  perceive  with  great  insight  and  enthusiasm 
the  meaning  of  the  organization  which  was  being 
formed  to  carry  forward  and  vitalize  the  plans  for 
which  he  had  long  dreamed  and  worked.  His  asso- 
ciates were  Robert  C.  Ogden,  the  President  of  the 


THE    PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       357 

Board,  George  Foster  Peabody,  Charles  D.  Mclver, 
Charles  W.  Dabney,  Edwin  A.  Alderman,  Wallace 
Buttrick,  HolHs  B.  Frizzell,  W.  H.  Baldwin,  Albert 
Shaw,  Walter  H.  Page,  and  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy. 
The  occasion  was  characterized  by  Curry's  splendid 
optimism;  and  his  genial  humor  and  forceful  elo- 
quence distinguished  the  banquet,  which  was  at- 
tended by  a  notable  company  to  greet  the  new 
force  for  good. 

This  Board  was  anatural  and  inevitable  off  spring  of 
the  activities  of  the  Peabody  Foundation.  The  great 
need  in  Southern  life  was  the  formation  of  a  power- 
ful public  opinion  for  popular  education.  Curry,  fast 
feeling  the  touch  of  the  years,  could  not  alone  accom- 
plish this  task,  though  his  strength  were  as  the 
strength  of  ten.  Public  opinion  in  such  great  social 
movements  must  be  continually  strengthened  and 
enlightened.  This  Board  took  up  that  task  and  may  be 
said  to  have  accomplished  an  amazing  total  of  good 
in  its  short  life.  So  untechnical  and  inspirational 
have  been  its  influences,  that  it  is  difficult  to  describe 
them  in  any  brief  space.  It  had  no  funds  to  distribute 
to  educational  institutions.  It  sought  to  ally  itself 
with  State  and  local  agencies.  Its  purpose  has  been 
steadily  not  to  obtrude,  but  to  efface  itself  in  the 
interests  of  the  people.  Its  fundamental  principle 
was  profound  faith  in  the  self-reliance  and  creative 
power  of  the  people  of  the  South.  Its  supreme  desire 
was  simply  to  help  a  great  people  struggling  with 
the  most  difficult  group  of  problems  ever  presented 
for  solution  to  a  democratic  society.  Its  funda- 
mental aims  were  to  increase  the  habit  of  self-help 
among  a  people  overburdened,  but  proud,  and  rightly 
determined  to  mould  their  institutions  after  their 


358      J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

own  way  and  with  their  own  means.  Mr.  Edgar 
Gardner  Murphy  in  a  clear  statement  before  the 
National  Education  Association  in  1906  thus  suc- 
cinctly defines  the  functions  of  the  Board  as  then 
outlined : — 

The  chief  function  of  the  Board  has  been  the  winning 
of  rural  communities  to  a  larger  policy  of  local  taxation 
for  school  purposes.  In  States  where  the  unit  of  taxation 
has  been  the  county,  assistance  has  been  given  to  the 
"county  campaign,"  the  representatives  of  the  Board 
helping  in  the  organization  of  public  meetings,  defraying 
the  actual  expenses  of  effective  speakers,  creating  and 
circulating  the  literature  of  the  subject,  and  co-operating 
with  the  local  educational  leaders  in  an  effort  to  secure 
an  affirmative  popular  vote  on  the  question  of  a  larger 
local  tax  for  the  benefit  of  the  schools. 

Where  the  unit  of  taxation  is  the  school  district,  the 
same  methods  are  employed;  the  Board  working  here,  as 
always,  solely  through  the  authorized  and  accepted 
agencies  of  the  locality  concerned.  These  local  cam- 
paigns have  powerfully  affected  the  general  school  legis- 
lation of  the  State.  State  funds — heretofore  the  chief 
resource  of  the  Southern  school  system — have  rapidly 
increased,  in  a  number  of  States,  from  50  to  100  per  cent, 
during  the  past  five  years.  Local  organizations  of 
women  for  the  improvement  of  rural  schoolhouses  have 
been  established;  or,  in  cases  where  such  activities  have 
already  existed,  they  have  been  strengthened  and 
equipped  for  still  larger  work.  The  movements  for  the 
formation  of  school  libraries,  for  the  development  of  high 
schools,  for  agricultural  education  and  manual  training 
have  all  received  recognition  and  reinforcement.  The 
Board  does  not  assume  that  the  educational  awakening 
of  the  South  has  been  due  to  its  initiative,  for  that  great 
movement  was  born  in  the  South,  had  become  irresistible 
before  the  formation  of  the  Board,  and  has  been  carried 


THE    PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       359 

forward  by  Southern  leaders,  but  its  vital  part  in  this 
arousal  of  popular  enthusiasm  for  the  common  schools  is 
generally  recognized.  Its  activities  have  been  conspic- 
uous and  at  many  points  decisive. 

In  the  year  1910,  still  under  the  Presidency  of  Rob- 
ert C.  Ogden,  and  assisted  by  the  fine  technical  skill 
and  statesmanlike  grasp  of  WycklifTe  Rose,  the  suc- 
cessor to  Curry  as  General  Agent  of  the  Peabody 
Fund,  this  Board  is  busily  at  work  in  cordial  co-op- 
eration with  the  State  authorities  of  every  Southern 
State,  upon  the  greatest  and  most  pressing  of  our 
present  educational  tasks,  the  unification  of  the 
State's  educational  forces.  In  October,  1902,  Curry 
attended  his  last  meeting  of  this  Board  whose  aims 
and  policies  he  so  cordially  approved.  His  appear- 
ance at  that  time  greatly  moved  his  associates.  His 
handsome  face  was  drawn  with  pain  and  his  graceful 
figure  wasted  by  suffering,  and  in  his  eyes  those  who 
loved  him  saw,  with  unspeakable  pain,  the  look  that 
betokens  the  sight  of  another  world.  But  he  at- 
tended to  his  duties,  met  his  friends  with  the  high 
courtesy  that  sat  so  well  upon  him,  and  bore  himself 
like  a  proud  man  who  does  not  fear  death  nor  any- 
thing but  failure  to  bear  his  share  of  the  work  to  be 
done.  His  inability  to  attend  the  Athens  Confer- 
ence in  the  Spring  had  elicited  this  characteristically 
modest  letter  from  the  president  of  the  Conference : — 

New  York,  June  6,  1902. 
Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry, 

Care  Morgan,  Harges  &  Co., 

Paris,  France. 
My  dear  Dr.  Curry: 

I  am  in  your  debt  for  two  recent  favors,  the  last  under 
date  of  May  25th,   at  hand  this  morning.     You  were 


360     J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

respectfully  and  gratefully  remembered  throughout  the 
entire  Athens  Conference,  and,  although  your  absence 
was  deeply  felt,  your  spiritual  presence  was  constantly 
in  evidence.  Both  for  our  sake  and  yours  I  regret  that 
you  could  not  take  part  in  and  observe  the  development 
of  the  ideas  in  which  we  are  so  deeply  interested  and  the 
broadening  sympathy  with  which  they  are  received. 
We,  of  course,  all  understand  the  delicacy  of  our  work, 
and  therefore  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  that  the  Conference 
proceeded  from  start  to  finish  with  a  manly  expression 
of  opinion  and  yet  without  any  interruption  to  the  spirit 
of  the  harmony. 

My  own  relation  to  the  whole  affair  is  much  like  that  of 
a  conductor  to  a  street  car,  my  duty  being  to  ring  the  bell 
for  the  starting  and  stopping  and  so  much  intent  upon 
the  progress  of  the  vehicle  that  I  cannot  take  in  very 
clearly  what  the  passengers  are  talking  about.  There- 
fore I  lose  a  great  deal  of  the  instruction  and  inspiration 
that  I  would  prefer  to  receive. 

The  more  comprehensive  our  knowledge  of  the  needs, 
and  appreciation  of  the  delicacy  of  the  question  with 
which  we  are  involved,  the  more  stupendous  does  the 
task  appear  to  me  to  be.  Considered  in  the  mass — hope- 
less; taken  up  in  detail — full  of  encouraging  signs.  Just 
when  and  how  it  is  all  to  work  out  I  do  not  see  clearly, 
but  have  the  faith  that,  because  right  is  right,  it  will 
eventually  result  in  conditions  that  will  make  for  peace 
and  prosperity  of  our  common  country. 

All  of  your  friends  and  the  people  everywhere  have  been 
delighted  over  the  success  of  your  mission  to  Spain,  and 
we  hope  that  you  are  now  to  have  such  a  period  of  rest 
as  will  bring  both  you  and  Mrs.  Curry  back  with  renewed 
strength. 

Your  grand-daughter  was  most  welcome  to  all  the 
guests  on  our  Southern  excursion.  At  Athens  we  had 
three  other  young  women  from  the  South,  who  accom- 
panied us  all  the  way  round  to  New  York.    To  the  entire 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN       361 

company  this  group  of  four  Southern  girls  seemed  the 
crowning  grace  of  our  excursion. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

Robert  C.  Ogden. 

The  development  of  the  common  schools  seemed 
to  Curry  the  great  fundamental  proposition  in  social 
progress;  and  his  estimate  of  its  significance  is  illus- 
trated by  a  paragraph  contained  in  the  last  annual 
Report  that  he  ever  made  to  the  Peabody  Board. 

It  should  be  a  cardinal  maxim  that  the  true  purpose  of 
the  school  is  to  fit  the  child  for  the  duties  of  the  man,  to 
train  the  whole  man  in  right-mindedness,  in  personal 
worth,  in  character  shaped  by  truth  and  duty,  in  the 
knowledge  and  achievements  necessary  for  the  life  of  the 
citizen.  That  was  a  striking  remark  of  Governor  Russell : 
"There  is  an  everlasting  difference  between  making  a 
Hving  and  making  a  life." 

Two  more  interesting  items,  belonging  to  the  year 
1899,  may  be  chosen  for  chronicle  here,  out  of  a 
great  number  that  might  be  noted  if  space  permitted. 
On  November  2nd  and  3rd  was  held  at  Washington 
a  meeting  of  the  National  University  Committee; 
and  Curry  and  his  wife  entertained  the  Committee 
at  dinner.  For  a  number  of  years  their  home  had 
been  in  Washington  in  order  to  facilitate  the  work 
he  had  in  hand.  A  Washington  newspaper  gave  the 
following  account  of  this  function: — 

Hon.  J.  L.  M,  Curry,  a  member  of  the  National  Uni- 
versity Committee,  gave  a  dinner  last  night  to  his  col- 
leagues. The  guests  were  President  Eliot  of  Harvard; 
President  Harper  of  Chicago  University;  President  Alder- 
man of  the  University  of  North  Carolina;  President 
Wilson  of  Washington  and  Lee;    President  Draper  of 


362      J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Illinois  University;  Justices  Brewer  and  Brown  of  the 
Supreme  Court;  Assistant  Secretary  Hill  of  the  State 
Department;  Mr.  Langley  of  the  Smithsonian;  Mr. 
Kapon  of  the  Bering  Sea  Commission;  Superintendents 
Maxwell  and  Soldan,  of  the  city  schools  of  New  York  and 
St.  Louis;  Professor  Murray  Butler  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity; Mr.  Dougherty,  late  President  of  the  National 
Education  Association;  Mr.  Canfield,  Librarian  of  Colum- 
bia University;  Dr.  Harris  of  the  Bureau  of  Education; 
Mr.  Putnam  of  the  Library  of  Congress;  and  Mr.  Proctor 
of  the  Civil  Service  Commission. 

In  December  the  following  entry  occurs  in  his 
journal: — 

B.  F.  Johnson,  book  publisher,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  pro- 
poses a  series  of  ten  historical  volumes,  to  be  prepared  by 
competent  authors,  and  invites  me  to  be  editor-in-chief. 

Men  had  not  yet  lost  confidence  in  the  veteran 
educator  and  scholar's  power  for  usefulness,  though 
he  had  already  passed  beyond  the  mark  of  the 
Psalmist's  three-score  years  and  ten. 

During  a  considerable  part  of  this  year,  he  suffered, 
as  his  diary  shows,  frequent  and  painful  attacks  of 
kidney  trouble.  On  the  18th  of  June  he  notes  that 
he  began  "electrical  treatment."  These  physical 
disabilities,  however, — premonitory  as  they  were, — 
were  not  sufficient  to  daunt  his  restless  spirit,  or  to 
give  pause  to  his  energy  in  public  service.  Respon- 
sibilities did  not  cease  to  increase  upon  him ;  yet  the 
natural  fires  of  his  genius  continued  to  burn  with 
unabated  flame.  Besides  attending  to  his  accus- 
tomed duties  as  General  Agent  of  the  Peabody  and 
Slater  Funds,  in  visiting  and  addressing  schools, 
legislatures  and  educational  meetings,  he  made  many 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN      363 

occasional  addresses  of  a  more  general  character. 
In  May,  1900,  he  attended  a  "Race  Conference"  at 
Montgomery,  Alabama,  where,  as  has  been  hereto- 
fore mentioned,  his  voice  almost  alone  was  one  of 
hope  for  the  future  of  the  negro  through  education; 
on  June  12  he  delivered  an  address  at  the  University 
of  Virginia,  taking  for  his  theme  the  noble  subject  of 
''Law  and  Liberty,"  the  Scotch-Irishman's  motto, 
since  the  day  of  McNeill  and  'Hhe  Red  Hand  of 
Ulster;  "  and  discussing  the  subject  with  a  wealth 
of  argument  and  of  illustration  that  emphasized 
the  duty  and  the  opportunity  of  the  South,  to  be 
accomplished  through  the  work  of  its  educated  young 
men.  In  October  he  visited  Tulane  University, 
and  delivered  an  address. 

Under  the  date  of  November  26,  1900,  occurs  the 
following  entry  in  the  journal: — 

Mary  and  I  went  to  Baltimore;  she  to  see  the  dress- 
maker, I  to  see  Dr.  Oilman,  whose  proposed  resignation 
of  the  Presidency  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  to  take 
effect  at  the  end  of  the  session,  has  been  widely  pub- 
lished and  commented  on.  He  suggested  that  he  would 
like,  in  conjunction  with  my  work  and  Southern  visits, 
to  give  much  of  the  remainder  of  his  life,  after  thirty-five 
years  in  college  and  university  work,  to  the  study  of 
Education  in  the  South. 

This  entry  is  but  little  more  than  an  echo  of  the 
many  similar  ones  that  appear  from  time  to  time  in 
Curry's  diaries,  showing  how  often  and  how  sym- 
pathetically the  two  men  had  before  this  time  dis- 
cussed a  subject  which  so  interested  each  of  them. 

In  April,  1901,  he  attended  the  Fourth  Conference 
for  Education  in  the  South,  held  at  Winston-Salem, 


364      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

North  Carolina;  and  in  June  of  this  year  he  made 
the  commencement  address  before  the  Literary- 
Societies  of  the  University  of  Georgia  upon  the  occa- 
sion of  its  centennial  celebration. 

Fourteen  years  earlier,  he  had  received  from  this 
institution  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws;  and  sixty 
years  before  this  centennial  date,  he  had  been  a 
student  within  its  walls,  and  a  member  of  one  of  the 
Societies  that  he  now  addressed. 

The  Peabody  Trust  whose  work  he  was  soon  to 
lay  down  actively  will  always  have  a  peculiar  and 
tender  significance  to  the  people  of  the  South.  Con- 
ceived in  sympathy,  administered  with  tact  and 
diplomacy,  and  yet  with  farsightedness  and  justice, 
it  came  at  just  the  nick  of  time,  and  did  a  funda- 
mental service.  It  was  a  small  endowment,  as  we  now 
measure  such  things,  though  at  the  time  it  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  civilized  world  and  helped  to  win 
for  its  giver  a  resting  place  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
Its  income  was  never  much  in  excess  of  $150,000,  yet 
it  sought  to  establish  an  enduring  system  of  common 
schools  in  the  Southern  States  for  both  races.  This 
daring  program  practically  succeeded,  because  its 
policy  of  stimulation  to  self  help  touched  a  self- 
reliant  and  resilient  population.  Sears  was  a  man 
of  genius  and  diplomacy  in  school  organization. 
Curry  was  a  man  of  inspiration  before  the  masses. 
By  the  time  Curry  assumed  control,  three-fifths  of 
all  income  went  to  teacher  training  and  two-fifths 
to  special  cases  of  public  school  development.  Four 
great  enduring  achievements  may  be  claimed  as  the 
result  of  Curry's  administration: — 

1.  The  establishment  of  State  Normal  Schools  for 
each  race  in  twelve  Southern  States. 


THE   PEABODY   FUND   AGAIN      365 

2.  The  establishment  of  a  system  of  public  graded 
schools  everywhere  in  the  cities  and  small  towns. 

3.  The  establishment,  in  the  minds  of  legislators, 
of  the  rm-al,  common  school  as  an  everlasting  respon- 
sibility. 

4.  The  production  of  a  body  of  literature  by  Curry 
in  his  forty  reports  and  ten  published  addresses 
which  appealed  to  a  people  undertaking  such  a  task 
as  assuming  responsibility  for  the  education  of  all 
the  people,  as  no  body  of  literature  had  done  since 
Jefiferson's  stirring  appeals  and  classic  definitions. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE   BIRTHDAY   OF  A  KING 

In  the  first  month  of  1902,  Mrs.  Curry  was  the 
recipient  of  the  following  note,  written  from  Paris, 
in  a  strong  feminine  hand,  on  both  sides  of  a  four  by- 
five  card,  which  bore  the  Spanish  insignia  of  roy- 
alty : — 

January  28th,  1902. 

My  Dear  Mrs.  Curry: 

I  am  so  happy  to  hear  that  Mr.  Curry  is  appointed 
Special  Envoy  to  Madrid  upon  the  coming  of  age  of  our 
King,  next  May.  I  shall  be  there,  and  I  am  looking  for- 
ward, with  great  joy,  to  meet  you  again.  I  imagine  you 
will  first  stop  in  Paris,  and  in  that  case,  most  probably,  I 
shall  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  also  here;  as  I  do  not 
think  I  shall  leave  for  Madrid  before  May. 

With  kind  regards  to  all  yours,  believe  me  as  ever, 
Your  very  affectionate  friend, 

Eulalia. 

It  was  a  kindly  note,  that  a  Spanish  princess 
should  have  written  to  an  American  lady,  at  a  time 
when  the  memories  of  the  sea  fight  at  Santiago  were 
still  very  fresh  in  the  minds  of  American  men,  and 
very  bitter  in  those  of  Spaniards;  and  it  indicates 
the  personal  hold— the  fine  attachment — which  the 
Currys  had  made  upon  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the 
best  of  those  with  whom  they  had  been  thrown  dur- 
ing their  sojourn  at  Madrid. 

On  January  27,  1902,  Curry  wrote  in  his  journal 

366 


THE    BIRTHDAY   OF   A     KING      367 

the  following  note,  in  which  he  places,  before  the 
record  of  his  appointment  as  emissary  to  the  Spanish 
Court,  a  memorial  of  his  election  into  the  oldest 
Greek-letter  society  of  America,  founded  in  the  first 
year  of  the  Revolution  by  a  coterie  of  noble  young 
spirits  at  the  ancient  capital  of  Williamsburg,  Vir- 
ginia,— a  society,  whose  motto:  ''Philosophy,  the 
guide  of  hfe,"  had  been  so  singularly  illustrated  in 
his  own  career: — 

Notice  of  election  to  membership  in  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society  of  William  and  Mary. 

Had  a  pleasant  interview  with  President  Roosevelt  in 
reference  to  my  Mission  to  Spain, — in  reference  to  title. 

1st.  He  thought  it  was  or  should  be  Ambassador. 

2nd.  There  would  be  a  Secretary. 

3rd.  As  to  compensation,  referred  to  Secretary  Hay. 

4th.  As  to  address  on  presentation,  asked  me  to  reduce 
to  form,  and  submit  to  him. 

On  February  17  the  commission  and  letter  of 
credence  as  Special  Envoy  to  Spain  were  received 
from  the  Secretary  of  State.  On  March  31  Curry 
called  on  the  President,  and  submitted  the  proposed 
presentation  address,  which  was  cordially  approved. 
A  week  later  the  following  letter  reached  him  from 
Secretary  Hay: — 

Department  of  State, 
Washington,  April  7,  1902. 

Dear  Doctor  Curry: 

Spain  having  indicated  a  wish  that  you  should  come  as 
an  Ambassador  Extraordinary  on  Special  Mission,  the 
President  has  issued  a  new  commission  and  a  new  letter  of 
credence  to  you  in  that  quality.  These  are  sent  to  you 
to-day  with  a  new  instruction  to  accord  therewith,  all 


368      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

bearing  the  date  of  the  old  papers,  which  are  cancelled  and 
should  be  returned  to  the  Department. 

Very  truly  yours, 

John  Hay. 
Enclosures  as  above. 
Doctor  J.  L.  M.  Curry, 
etc.,  etc.,  etc., 
Washington. 

On  Monday,  April  14th,  Curry  went  to  Baltimore 
for  a  consultation  concerning  his  health  with  Dr. 
William  Osier  of  Johns  Hopkins. 

On  April  18  Curry,  with  his  wife  and  niece,  Mrs. 
Connally  Coxe,  and  a  trained  nurse,  sailed  on  the 
''Staatdam."  "  It  was  his  19th  crossing."  They 
were  joined  in  Paris  by  Mr.  R.  Simpkins  of  Boston, 
who  had  been  appointed  Secretary  for  this  special 
mission. 

Ten  days  later  Curry  and  his  party  landed  at 
Boulogne,  whence  they  proceeded  to  Paris.  Here 
they  called  by  appointment  on  Mrs.  Curry's  friend, 
the  Infanta  Eulalia,  and  Queen  Isabel,  who  received 
them  with  many  marks  of  courtesy  and  cordiality. 
Upon  their  arrival  at  Madrid,  they  were  met  at  the 
station  by  the  Duke  of  Almodovar,  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  Mr.  Sickles  and  many  other  Spanish 
dignitaries.  The  Marquis  of  Villalobar,  an  old 
and  intimate  friend,  had  with  that  extreme  thought- 
fulness  that  characterized  the  actions  of  the  Spanish 
Government  at  that  time  been  appointed  Special 
Aide  to  the  American  Ambassador.  Nothing  could 
have  exceeded  the  lavish  hospitality  which  was  ex- 
tended to  the  Currys,  not  only  as  America's  repre- 
sentatives on  such  a  great  occasion,  but  as  old  and 
well  remembered  friends,  who  had  never  been  for- 


THE   BIRTHDAY   OF   A     KING      369 

gotten  by  those  who  had  known  them,  during  their 
stay  many  years  before.  A  beautiful  villa  was  put 
at  their  disposal  with  many  servants,  guards  and 
sentinels  and  all  the  details  of  luxurious  Hving,  from 
a  carriage  of  the  Royal  Stables,  with  its  men  in  full 
Royal  livery,  to  the  writing  paper,  and  menu  cards — 
all  of  which  bore  the  Royal  coat-of-arms. 

On  the  15th  of  April  Curry  writes  in  his  diary: — 

At  10  Secretary  Simpkins  and  I,  with  Villalobar,  went 
to  the  Palace  and  had  an  audience  of  Queen  and  King,  and 
the  Prince  of  Asturias. 

His  address  on  this  occasion,  which  has  been  pre- 
served among  his  papers,  is  not  without  interest  as 
illustrating  what  an  American  citizen,  clothed  with 
the  dignity  of  Ambassador  Extraordinary,  should  say 
to  a  long-descended  ruler,  by  the  grace  of  God,  ar- 
riving at  his  majority. 

Curry  said: — 

I  am  charged  as  special  Ambassador  Extraordinary  to 
bear  you  the  greetings  of  the  President  and  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  as  you  stand  with  joyous  ex- 
pectation on  the  threshold  of  hope  and  progress,  and  to 
felicitate  you  on  a  long  life,  blessed  by  the  example  and 
spirit  and  teachings  of  a  noble  and  world-honored  mother, 
and  to  assure  you  of  most  cordial  sympathy  and  co-opera- 
tion in  all  efforts  for  development  of  resources,  for  adher- 
ence to  the  basal  principles  of  law  and  order,  and  for  the 
settlement  of  all  differences  on  the  basis  of  the  equality  of 
nations  and  stability  of  just  governments.  Science  has 
made  all  the  world  akin,  and  no  god,  Terminus,  stands  at 
artificial  barriers  to  arrest  the  flow  of  good-will  or  mutual 
helpfulness. 

The  object  of  this  mission  is  to  confirm  anew  the  former 
utterances  of  my  country's  honored  representative,  and  to 
reassure,  in  most  emphatic  manner,  the  earnest  desire  of 


370     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

the  President  and  of  the  people,  to  cement  in  indissoluble 
bonds  the  friendship  of  the  new  nations.  There  can  be  no 
political  antagonism,  no  well-founded  or  enduring  antip- 
athy, between,  two  peoples  alike  anxious  of,  and  equally 
purposing,  the  closest  relations  of  amity.  This  mission  is 
the  strongest  assurance, — may  it  be  the  guarantee, — of 
peace  and  friendship,  of  social  and  commercial  intercourse, 
in  the  pursuit  of  a  common  end,  a  nobler  civilization, 
choosing  the  good,  rejecting  the  evil. 

The  well-being  of  one  nation  is  a  factor  in  the  well-being 
of  all;  and  I  voice  the  universal  sentiment  of  my  country 
when  I  say  Spain  and  the  United  States  should  be  inter- 
linked in  chains  of  mutual  interest,  good  will  and  happi- 
ness. America  can  never  forget,  must  always  honor, 
Spain's  early  and  commanding  history,  her  unquestioned 
superiority  in  the  arts  of  policy  and  of  war,  her  pre-emi- 
nence in  art  and  literature,  her  chivalrous  courage,  tenac- 
ity of  conviction,  irrepressible  vitality ;  and  all  nations  will 
give  her  glad  welcome  as  she  springs  forward  to  her  an- 
cient prestige,  in  rivalry  for  good  government,  for  universal 
education,  for  accomplishing  by  best  method,  best  skill, 
best  abilities,  best  standards  of  action  and  belief,  what 
will  promote  international  harmony,  domestic  prosperity, 
and  larger  freedom.  Peace  is  not  a  period  of  preparation 
for  war,  a  whetting  of  swords  for  another  conflict.  It  has 
a  deeper,  a  diviner  meaning, — the  emulation  of  a  brother- 
hood, which  by  infrangible  bonds  of  a  common  interest  and 
by  international  arbitration  will  make  wars  impossible. 

As  I  was  one  of  the  first  to  hear  the  glad  proclamation. 
Viva  el  Rey!  from  the  lips  of  the  present  distinguished 
Premier,  I  come,  for  country  and  for  self,  after  the  lapse 
of  sixteen  years,  to  invoke  blessings  upon  your  Majesty 
and  the  Kingdom,  and  to  wish  for  you  abounding  pros- 
perity and  happiness. 

Curry  remarks  of  the  King,  in  his  diary,  as  a  com- 
ment upon  the  occasion: — 


THE    BIRTHDAY   OF   A     KING      371 

He  is  a  well-grown  boy,  and  impressed  me  rather  favor- 
bly;  and  does  not  seem  as  fragile  as  I  expected. 

On  the  following  day  Curry  was  a  guest  at  the 
royal  banquet  at  the  Palace,  and  occupied  a  place 
of  honor  near  the  King.  On  the  same  day  he  was 
the  recipient,  at  the  hands  of  the  government,  of  the 
decoration  of  the  Royal  Order  of  Charles  III. 

On  Saturday,  May  17,  he  writes  in  his  journal: — 

Lovely  day.  At  2  to  Congress  to  witness  the  taking  of 
the  oath  by  the  King  in  presence  of  the  Royal  family, 
Cortes,  Diplomatic  Corps,  foreign  representatives.  Much 
enthusiasm.    Young  King  behaved  well. 

Went  to  church,  where  to  a  crowded  house,  the  Te  Deum 
was  sung.  King,  Queen,  Royal  family,  government,  etc., 
present. 

At  night  Mary  and  I  dined  with  Sir  H.  M.  Durand  of 
the  British  Embassy.  Then  rode  through  the  packed  and 
brilliantly  illuminated  streets. 

For  nearly  a  week  longer  the  Currys  remained  at 
Madrid,  participating  in  the  various  functions  and 
festivities  that  adorned  and  characterized  a  gala 
occasion.  On  May  22  they  left  the  Spanish  Capital, 
followed  by  many  expressions  of  friendship  and  popu- 
larity; and  after  a  stay  of  two  months  in  France  and 
Switzerland  returned  home. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

LAST   DAYS   AND    END 

During  this  sojourn  in  Europe,  Curry's  health 
grew  more  impaired;  and  the  attacks  of  his  malady 
at  times  caused  him  much  suffering.  There  seemed 
to  be  little,  if  any,  improvement  after  his  return 
home,  in  spite  of  the  skilled  treatment  he  had  re- 
ceived, both  in  Europe  and  America,  at  the  hands 
of  eminent  specialists.  A  man  with  less  energy  of 
will,  or  with  a  feebler  aspiration  for  continued  use- 
fulness, might  have  been  contented  to  relax  his  work 
under  the  burdens  of  pain  and  increasing  age,  and  to 
await  in  quietude  the  inevitable  end.  But  with 
unabated  purpose  he  continued  to  keep  his  place  in 
the  front  rank  of  those  who  sought  to  elevate  and 
dignify  the  nation  in  which  he  had  shown  himself  a 
leader.  The  educator  once  more  took  up  his  allotted 
task  with  an  unfaltering  spirit,  and  with  an  ever 
unsparing  effort,  that  was  accompanied  and  light- 
ened by  frequent  expressions  of  appreciation  which 
came  to  him  from  those  who  knew  and  recognized 
his  distinguished  service. 

Before  his  departure  for  Madrid  in  April,  he  had 
participated  in  epoch  making  plans  for  the  cause  of 
education  in  the  South  and  the  nation;  and  these 
plans  are  indicated  in  an  entry  of  his  journal  on 
February  27,  1902:— 

Left  for  New  York.  Guest  of  W.  H.  Baldwin,  Jr.  We 
went  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr. 's,  to  dinner. 

372 


LAST   DAYS   AND    END  373 

Present,  Baldwin,  Curry,  Gates,  Oilman,  Ogden,  Shaw, 
Page,  Buttrick,  and  Edward  M.  Shepard  as  counsel.  In 
the  order  named  we  signed  our  names  to  a  paper  defining 
the  purpose  of  an  Education  Association,  for  which  an 
incorporation  was  to  be  asked  from  Congress.  An  organi- 
zation was  effected,  and  Mr.  Rockefeller,  for  his  father, 
agreed  to  place  $1,000,000  in  the  hands  of  the  Association, 
to  be  used  at  the  rate  of  $100,000  a  year  for  education  in 
the  South. 

Meeting  harmonius,  and  every  vote  unanimous.  We 
sat  until  after  midnight. 

On  April  2  the  following  note  was  made  in  the 
journal: — 

Left  at  7:45  for  New  York.  Trustees  of  General  Edu- 
cation Board  met  at  Mr.  Jesup's  at  4  p.  m. 

Very  interesting  meeting.  Mr.  J.  D.  Rockefeller  placed 
$1,000,000  at  our  disposal  to  be  used  in  ten  years  accord- 
ing to  a  "poHcy"  we  had  adopted.  Some  appropriations 
were  made;  others  offered  on  conditions. 

Thus  simply  does  Curry  record  the  beginnings  of 
the  General  Education  Board,  now  everywhere  known 
as  perhaps  the  most  powerful  educational  foundation 
in  the  world.  Since  that  day  fifty-one  million  dollars 
have  been  given  to  this  Board  by  Mr.  John  D.  Rocke- 
feller, with  a  wisdom  and  sagacity  seldom  equalled 
by  the  great  givers  of  our  times.  The  income 
from  this  huge  foundation  has  enabled  the  Board 
to  enlarge  its  field  of  operation,  until  now  it  embraces 
the  continent.  It  has  chosen  for  its  special  province 
the  work  of  strengthening  higher  education  in  the 
Republic ;  throughout  the  South,  in  addition,  it  seeks 
to  promote  public  high  schools  through  the  State 
universities  and  the  State  departments  of  education, 
and  to  subserve  elementary  education  by  the  im- 


374      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

provement  of  agricultural  conditions  and  increasing 
the  efficiency  of  rural  life. 

The  fundamental  idea  of  the  Board  is  the  stimu- 
lation to  self-help  of  States,  cities,  and  communities; 
and  in  pursuance  of  this  idea  it  has  directly  and  in- 
directly, under  the  thoughtful  guidance  of  Frederick 
T.  Gates  and  Wallace  Buttrick,  increased  the  per- 
manent endowment  of  American  colleges  over  twenty 
millions  of  dollars  in  the  past  five  years;  and  its 
service  to  American  education  has  just  begun.  In 
the  language  of  Dr.  C.  A.  Smith. 

*'  The  idea  which  moves  this  Board  is  not  that  of  creating 
anything  new,  but  of  contributing  to  the  efficiency  of 
what  already  exists.  Its  desire  is  not  to  bolster  up  the 
weak,  but  to  make  the  strong  still  stronger;  not  to  choke 
off  individual  initiative,  but  to  spur  it  on;  not  to  make 
new  institutions,  but  to  encourage  and  assist  those  which 
have  shown  themselves  useful  to  the  people." 

It  was  a  great  gratification  to  Curry,  with  the  shad- 
ows of  death  falling  across  his  path,  to  see  the  work  of 
his  life  thus  about  to  be  carried  forward  by  great  agen- 
cies unimagined,  when  he  emerged  from  the  darkness 
and  gloom  of  the  lower  South,  smitten  by  the  mad- 
ness of  reconstruction,  to  undertake  his  educational 
ministry.  In  1905,  upon  a  foundation  of  $100,000, 
given  by  Mr.  Rockefeller  and  in  accordance  with  an 
expressed  wish  of  his,  the  Curry  Memorial  School  of 
Education  was  established  at  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  recently  the  General  Education  Board,  in 
honor  of  one  of  its  greatest  pioneer  members,  has 
added  $50,000  to  the  endowment  of  the  School. 

In  July,  1902,  shortly  before  Curry's  return  from 
abroad,  a  meeting  of  the  Southern  Education  Board 


LAST    DAYS   AND    END  375 

and  of  the  General  Education  Board  was  held  in 
New  York  City,  at  which  was  indicated  a  general 
movement  in  the  direction  of  harmonizing  the  differ- 
ent large  educational  funds  then  in  existence,  without 
imposing  intentional  restrictions  upon  their  inde- 
pendent use  and  efficiency. 

The  following  items  from  the  journal  are  intro- 
ductory of  what  was  done  in  this  direction  at  a  later 
period : — 

September  29. — Arrived  in  New  York  at  1:30  p.  m. 
Manly  met  us  at  station,  but  left  at  once  for  boat  and 
Atlanta. 

Gov.  Porter  travelled  with  us  from  Asheville  to  New 
York. 

Mr.  Simpkins  made  us  a  visit. 

Dr.  Fraser,  at  my  request,  travelled  from  Washington 
to  Baltimore,  as  I  wished  a  conference  with  him  on  educa- 
tion in  Virginia. 

September  30. — Dr.  Wallace  Buttrick,  Mrs.  Morehead, 
Mr.  Simpkins  and  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington  came  to  see 
us. 

My  health  improves. 

Dr.  Buttrick  showed  me  a  highly  complimentary  letter 
from  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller,  who  stands  behind  our 
General  Education  Board,  expressing  surprise  and  grati- 
fication at  the  success  and  hopefulness  of  the  work.    .    .    . 

Wednesday,  October  1. — Busy  day  from  9  to  5.  Pea- 
body  Board  met  at  noon.  Important  conferences  preced- 
ing. Re-elected  General  Agent,  nem.  con.  A  Secretary, 
salary  of  $2,000,  authorized  on  motion,  with  commenda- 
tory remarks,  of  J.  P.  Morgan. 

On  my  recommendation,  two  committees  were  ap- 
pointed; one,  on  needs  of  Normal  College;  the  other,  on 
co-operation  with  "General  Education  Board." 

I  did  not  attend  the  usual  banquet.     .     .     . 


376      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Thursday,  October  2. — Meeting,  in  my  room,  of  Com- 
mittee on  College;  Oilman,  Hoar,  Porter,  Hoke  Smith. 
Gov.  Porter,  in  saying  goodbye  tearfully,  said  his  injunc- 
tion was  to  take  good  care  of  myself  for  next  five  weeks. 
The  College  never  so  much  needed  me.  Its  success  de- 
pended on  it;  and  his  work  would  be  a  failure  without  me. 

Left  at  4  p.  m. 

Curry's  high  estimate  of  Governor  Porter,  and  of 
his  relation  to  the  Peabody  Normal  College  and  the 
cause  of  education,  is  worthy  of  being  recorded 
here : — 

Governor  Porter,  who  gave  wise  counsel  and  intelligent 
and  influential  support  to  Dr.  Sears  in  his  incipient  propo- 
sition to  ally  the  Peabody  Board  with  the  State  in  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  College,  should  be  memorialized  by 
monument  and  the  gratitude  of  teachers  as  the  man  who 
rendered  most  efficient  and  invaluable  aid. 

Following  the  entry  of  October  2  in  the  journal 
is  this  brief  and  significant  one: — 

October  3. — Asheville  in  afternoon. 
Relapse,  and  very  sick. 

This  attack  seems  to  have  been  ominous ;  and  was 
indicative  of  his  now  rapidly  waning  vitality.  He 
made  no  record  in  his  journal,  as  he  usually  did,  of 
this  meeting  of  the  Peabody  Board;  but  contented 
himself  with  preserving  in  his  scrap-book  a  news- 
paper clipping,  which  gave  an  account  of  it. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Peabody  Fund  met  yesterday  in  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  at  noon,  and  elected  officers  for  the 
ensuing  year,  and  received  the  reports  of  Dr.  J.  L.  M. 
Curry,  General  Agent,  and  of  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  Treas- 
urer. Bishop  William  Croswell  Doane  of  Albany  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Board  to  succeed  the  late  Bishop 
Whipple  of  Minnesota,  and  Morris  K.  Jesup  to  succeed 


LAST   DAYS   AND    END  377 

the  late  ex-Senator  William  M.  Evarts.  It  was  voted  that 
at  the  call  of  the  Chairman,  Chief  Justice  Fuller,  and  the 
executive  committees,  a  special  meeting  might  be  held  in 
Washington  in  January  to  consider  taking  steps  to  bring 
the  work  of  the  Peabody  Fund,  the  Slater  Fund  and  the 
General  Education  Fund  into  greater  harmony.  No  merg- 
ing of  management  is  contemplated,  but  it  is  desired  to 
avoid  duplication  of  work.  Acting  upon  a  motion  made 
by  Senator  Hoar  last  year,  an  advisory  board  was  elected 
for  the  Peaboby  Normal  College  at  Nashville.  W.  A. 
Berry,  W.  H.  McAllister,  John  M.  Gannt  and  Willis  Bon- 
ner, all  of  Tennessee,  were  elected.  Dr.  Curry  in  his  re- 
port reviewed  the  work  of  the  last  twenty  years  of  the 
Fund.  It  was  voted  that  he  be  empowered  to  choose  an 
assistant.  The  income  of  the  Fund,  amounting  to  $80,000, 
was  distributed  among  the  scholarships  and  institutes  in 
various  States  on  last  year's  basis.  Governor  James  D. 
Porter,  the  President  of  the  Normal  College;  Dr.  Curry, 
the  General  Agent;  Dr.  S.  A.  Green,  the  Secretary;  and 
J.  P.  Morgan,  the  Treasurer,  together  with  the  standing 
committees,  were  re-elected.  Those  present  were  Samuel 
A.  Green,  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  James  D.  Porter,  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan,  Chief  Justice  Fuller,  Henderson  M.  Somerville, 
Daniel  C.  Gilman,  George  Peabody  Wetmore,  George  F. 
Boar,  and  Hoke  Smith.  There  was  a  dinner  in  the  evening 
for  the  members  and  their  guests. 

By  November,  Curry's  general  health  appears  to 
have  improved;  and  early  in  December  he  visited 
Nashville,  and  with  Dean  Russell,  of  the  New  York 
Teachers  College,  addressed  the  Peabody  Normal 
College,  leaving  that  afternoon  for  Asheville. 

The  Nashville  American  of  December  6th  gave 
the  following  account  of  this  visit: — 

No  event  has  recently  occurred  in  connection  with  the 
Peabody  College  which  has  been  of  more  interest  to  the 


378     J.  L.  M.  CUREY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

College,  its  faculty,  and  the  student  body,  than  the  recent 
visit  of  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  General  Agent  of  the  Peabody 
Board;  Dr.  James  E.  Russell,  Dean  of  the  Teachers'  Col- 
lege of  New  York,  and  Dr.  Wallace  Buttrick,  Secretary 
of  the  General  Education  Board  of  New  York.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  faculty  of  the  Peabody  College,  held 
Thursday,  the  following  resolutions  were  unanimously 
adopted: 

"Be  it  resolved,  that  the  faculty  of  the  Peabody  College 
for  Teachers  express  its  special  thankfulness  for  the  recent 
visit  of  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  and  that  we  assure  him  of  a 
gratitude  we  cannot  put  in  words  for  the  interest  and  help 
he  has  given  this  institution.  Our  sympathy  goes  out  to 
him  in  this  time  of  suffering,  along  with  a  pleading  to  the 
Father  that  he  may  be  restored  to  his  wonted  vigor.  His 
service  to  his  generation  has  been  mighty;  may  he  be 
spared  to  crown  a  life,  already  rich  toward  God,  with  even 
greater  achievements  for  the  people  he  has  loved  with  all 
his  soul.  His  coming  to  us  is  the  coming  of  a  father;  his 
welcome  will  ever  be  the  welcome  of  a  father. 

"Be  it  resolved,  that  the  faculty  of  the  Peabody  College 
for  Teachers  thank  Dr.  James  E.  Russell  and  Dr.  Wallace 
Buttrick  for  their  recent  visit,  and  assure  them  of  the  ser- 
vice this  visit  yielded  to  the  students,  to  the  faculty,  and 
to  the  institution  as  a  whole.  We  extend  to  them  our 
wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  the  great  enterprise  they  are 
directing,  with  the  hope  that  their  duties  will  permit  them 
to  come  to  us  frequently.  For  them  our  College  household 
cherishes  a  warm  welcome." 

The  kindly  and  gentle  spirit  of  these  resolves  sug- 
gest the  intimation  that  their  adopters  perceived 
the  waves  of  life  to  be  ebbing  with  the  man, 
whose  career  had  so  closely  touched  that  of  the  in- 
stitution they  represented.  The  resolutions  are 
words  of  farewell. 


LAST   DAYS   AND    END  379 

Following  the  Peabody  Board's  meeting  in  Octo- 
ber, and  the  visit  to  Nashville  early  in  December, 
the  brief  entries  in  the  journal,  with  the  more 
frequent  blanks  and  hiatuses,  tell  a  pathetic  story 
of  protracted  relapses,  of  severe  surgical  operations 
and  of  great  sufferings.  But  the  invincible  courage 
remained  still  victorious,  and  the  fading  eyes  con- 
tinued to  look  forward  with  unabated  hope.  A 
sense  of  this  stalwart  and  unyielding  spirit  is  inevi- 
tably kindled  by  the  perusal  of  the  pages  of  the 
diary  of  1902,  with  their  brief  jottings  of  a  series 
of  business  appointments,  running  into  the  New 
Year. 

In  the  meantime,  letters  of  sympathy  and  en- 
couragement and  admiration  were  coming  to  him 
from  many  of  the  most  distinguished  of  his  friends 
and  contemporaries,  at  home  and  abroad,  not  only 
in  the  educational  world,  but  also  in  the  world  of 
politics  and  letters.  Of  themselves,  they  mark  the 
conspicuous  and  approved  position  that  Curry  had 
achieved;  and  if  space  permitted  their  pubHcation 
here,  they  would  serve  to  adorn  the  pages  which 
seek  to  chronicle  his  career. 

One  writes,  ''It  is  a  matter  of  much  rejoicing  to  us 
to  see  the  fruition  of  the  earnest  seed-sowing  that 
you  have  done  these  many  years  in  the  South;" 
another,  "I  hope  that  no  temporary  discouragement 
as  to  the  condition  of  your  health  will  induce  you 
to  think  of  leaving  the  great  work  of  managing  the 
Peabody  and  Slater  funds,  which  have  been  for  so 
many  years  the  great  sheet  anchor  of  education  in 
the  South;"  another,  "It  is  the  pride  and  solace  of 
those  who  cherish  your  name  and  fame  that  they 
will  be  associated  with  great  movements  for  the 


380      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

4 

blessing  of  so  many;"  and  so  the  record  might  be 
almost  indefinitely  multiplied. 

After  a  critical  illness  of  two  weeks,  the  end  came 
at  11:20  o'clock,  Thursday  night,  February  12,  1903, 
at  the  house  of  his  brother-in-law,  Colonel  John  A. 
Connally,  near  Asheville,  North  Carolina.  Mrs. 
Curry,  whose  ill  health  had  shortly  before  taken  her 
to  Philadelphia  for  medical  treatment,  returned  to 
Asheville  when  her  husband  grew  worse;  and  she 
was  by  his  bedside  when  he  died. 

His  wish  that  his  mortal  body  might  repose  at 
Richmond,  and  be  borne  to  its  last  resting-place 
from  the  halls  of  Richmond  College,  was  faithfully 
regarded;  and  there  gathered  many  of  the  fore- 
most men  of  the  nation  to  bear  testimony  to  his 
worth. 

"On  the  heights  of  Hollywood,  overlooking  the  running 
river,  his  grave  was  made,"  writes  a  sympathetic  friend. 
**Not  far  away  is  the  grave  of  Dr.  Jeter,  for  many  years  his 
friend  and  contemporary.  Hard  by  is  the  grave  of  H.  H. 
Harris,  whom  he  loved  with  surpassing  tenderness.  In  the 
same  neighborhood  sleeps  the  dust  of  William  D.  Thomas, 
his  brother-in-law.  These,  with  scores  of  their  friends  and 
brethren  in  Christ,  await  His  coming." 

The  names  in  this  paragraph  are  of  those  who 
were  very  near  to  him  in  affection  and  in  the  creed 
that  he  professed.  Others  yet,  whose  names  and 
fames  are  linked  with  the  larger  country,  sleep  about 
him  in  the  Valhalla  of  the  South. 

The  shock  and  strain  of  the  great  separation 
brought  his  devoted  wife  to  his  side  within  three  short 
months,  during  which  her  thoughts  had  dwelt  con- 
stantly upon  the  perpetuation  of  his  work  and  his 


LAST   DAYS   AND    END  381 

fame.    Upon  the  memorial  stone  marking  their  com- 
mon resting  place  is  graven  this  triumphant  promise : — 

They  that  wonder  shall 
Reign,  and  they  that 
Reign  shall  rest. 


CHAPTER  XX 

FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES 

Curry's  life,  passing  the  period  named  by  the 
Psalmist,  covered  a  time  of  amazing  development, 
during  which  his  own  country  advanced  to  the  front 
rank  among  nations  and  the  world  about  him  was 
made  over,  before  his  eyes,  in  political  machinery, 
economic  method,  scientific  power  and  social  purpose. 
Born  in  the  administration  of  John  Quincy  Adams, 
and  while  Thomas  Jefferson  still  lived  and  was 
launching  the  last  darling  project  of  his  heart — the 
University  of  Virginia — he  held  his  latest  commission 
in  the  public  service  from  Theodore  Roosevelt.  His 
career  was  contemporaneous  with  those  of  many  of 
the  most  distinguished  men  and  women  in  the  his- 
tory of  his  country;  and  his  associations  with  a  large 
number  of  these  men  and  women  were  more  than 
casual.  His  visits  abroad,  and  his  services  as  a  diplo- 
mat, afforded  him  the  opportunity  of  knowing  many 
of  the  first  personages  of  his  generation  in  the 
political,  literary  and  social  life  of  the  old  world; 
and  his  journals  abound  with  references  to  these 
friends  and  acquaintances. 

Frequent  mention  has  been  made  in  the  preceding 
pages  of  his  admiration  for  Calhoun.  No  man  exer- 
cised a  more  potent  influence  upon  his  younger  life, 
in  directing  his  adoption  of  the  political  theories  and 
principles  of  the  Federal  Government,  than  did  the 

382 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         383 

great  South  Carolinian;  and  no  man  ever,  through- 
out his  career,  more  nearly  measured  up  to  his  con- 
ception of  the  ideal  statesman.  Curry's  meeting 
with  Calhoun, — the  one  entering,  the  other  nearing 
the  close  of  his  public  career, — ^on  the  occasion  of 
the  former's  return  home  from  Harvard  in  1845, 
has  already  been  detailed  in  a  former  chapter. 
Throughout  his  political  experiences  in  Alabama, 
and  during  his  service  in  Congress,  the  younger  man 
remained  an  avowed  follower  of  the  elder;  and  into 
his  later  years  of  a  broader  and  more  chastened  ex- 
perience, he  kept  the  master's  faith,  and  ranked 
Calhoun  with  the  most  intellectual  of  the  world's 
political  philosophers. 

Frequent  reminiscences  of  the  War  between  the 
States,  and  of  the  Southern  leaders,  have  appeared 
in  earlier  pages  of  this  book.  The  following  extracts 
contain  allusions  to  four  of  the  most  unique  figures 
in  the  armies  of  the  South, — General  Cockrell,  less 
well-known  than  the  other  three;  General  Pat 
Cleburne,  whose  fame  the  poet,  Ticknor,  has  bla- 
zoned in  one  of  the  most  stirring  of  Southern  war 
lyrics;  General  Leonidas  Polk,  who  fashioned  his 
bishop's  crozier  into  a  sword-blade  in  defense  of  his 
country;  and  the  partisan  leader.  Colonel  John  S. 
Mosby,  whose  ''Confederacy"  was,  for  a  long  period 
of  the  war,  maintained  in  the  enemy's  country  with 
an  unsurpassed  and  famous  gallantry. 

"Near  New  Hope,"  writes  Curry,  "occurred  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  sorties  of  the  campaign.  Some  of  the  Union 
forces  made  a  desperate  and  bold  effort  to  break  through 
our  right.  They  were  met  by  as  gallant  a  defence  as  sol- 
diers ever  made.  The  Confederates  under  Cleburne, 
Cockrell  and  others,  displayed  heroic  courage;  and  when 


384     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

the  attacking  party  withdrew,  the  ground  was  so  covered 
with  dead  and  disabled  that  one  could  have  traversed  it 
by  walking  on  bodies.  I  never  saw  on  battle  field  such 
havoc  and  destruction  of  human  life.  Cockrell,  now  Sena- 
tor from  Missouri,  brave  as  Julius  Caesar,  tender-hearted 
as  a  woman,  never  appears  to  greater  advantage  than 
when,  in  the  midst  of  peril,  he  leads  those  who  worship  him 
to  combat  and  victory.  Cleburne,  of  Irish  parentage,  was 
a  born  captain,  and  like  Jackson  and  Forrest  and  Semmes 
and  Gordon,  was  conspicuous  for  generalship  which  seems 
to  have  come  from  instinct,  or  to  have  been  heaven-en- 
dowed. In  my  old  Congressional  district,  a  county,  cut  off 
from  Randolph  and  Calhoun,  through  which  the  Southern 
Railway  passes,  keeps  alive  the  name  and  fame  of  Cle- 
burne." 

"In  March  (1864)  I  went  to  Demopolis,  at  the  request 
of  Gen.  Leonidas  Polk,  a  bishop  of  the  Episcopal  Church, 
who  had  resigned  his  clerical  position  in  order  to  serve  the 
Confederacy  in  the  field.  A  grand  review  of  20,000  troops 
took  place,  and  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing  acres  of  sol- 
diers.    .     .     . 

"It  was  near  Marietta  that  our  army  was  thrown  into 
deep  grief  by  the  untimely  death  of  Gen.  Polk,  who  expos- 
ing himself  too  long  while  making  an  observation,  was 
struck  by  a  shell  and  killed  suddenly.  His  piety,  devotion 
to  his  church,  fervent  patriotism  and  soldierly  qualities 
endeared  him  to  army  and  people,  and  gave  our  cause  the 
prestige  of  his  striking  personality." 

"December  4, 1866. — Left  Washington  City  in  company 
with  Dr.  Plummer.  Met  Col.  Mosby,  the  famous  partisan 
leader,  on  the  cars.  Pointed  out  many  places  of  historic 
interest.    A  modest,  unassuming,  intelligent  gentleman." 

Among  Curry's  papers  is  the  following  about 
"Stonewall"  Jackson: — 

Gen.  T.  J.  Jackson  is  more  universally  loved  in  the  Con- 
federacy than  any  other  officer  except  Lee.    His  marvel- 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         385 

lous  achievements  were  the  result  of  extraordinary  miU- 
tary  genius.  Col.  Henderson,  in  his  "Life  of  Jackson," 
the  best  book  written  on  the  War,  writing  not  as  a  partisan 
but  as  an  unprejudiced  military  critic, — a  Jomini  or  Na- 
pier,— ascribes  to  him  the  highest  qualities  as  a  captain. 
For  years  prior  to  the  War  he  had  been  a  professor  in  the 
Virginia  Military  Institute;  but  he  had  little  aptness  to 
teach;  and  his  piety  and  courage  did  not  shield  him  from 
adverse  criticism  as  a  teacher.  On  20  May,  1875,  I  made 
a  call  on  Gov.  Kemper;  and  in  the  course  of  the  evening  he 
said  that  in  1857,  when  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Visitors 
of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  one  of  the  professors 
appeared  before  that  body  with  two  hundred  cadets,  and 
in  a  formal  manner  demanded  the  removal  of  Col.  Jackson 
from  his  professorship  for  "intellectual  incompetency." 
The  demand  was  fortunately  not  acceded  to,  and  the  pro- 
fessor continued  in  the  discharge  of  his  collegiate  duties 
until  the  war  occurred,  when  he  promptly  offered  his  ser- 
vices as  a  soldier. 

Mention  has  heretofore  been  made  of  Horace 
Greeley's  complimentary  allusion  in  The  Tribune  to 
Curry's  first  speech  in  Congress.  Under  date  of 
Sunday,  August  6,  1871,  occurs  the  following  note 
in  the  diary: — 

Preached  at  11:30  a.  m.  at  Madison  Avenue  Baptist 
Church  (New  York).  Administered  the  Lord's  Supper  in 
morning.  Horace  Greeley  was  present  in  the  morning, 
and  soundly  slept. 

Curry's  acquaintances  among  famous  Englishmen 
were  numerous.  His  meetings  with  Matthew  Arnold, 
Joseph  Chamberlain,  Goldwin  Smith,  and  others 
have  been  already  mentioned.  In  a  newspaper  clip- 
ping preserved  by  him,  and  contributed  by  him  to 
the  Religious  Herald,  he  writes  of  Arnold: — 

Matthew  Arnold  was  also  once  in  Richmond  for  a  few 


386      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

days.  As  he  brought  a  letter  of  introduction  to  me  from 
the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  it  was  my  privilege  to  show 
him  some  attention  and  enjoy  his  companionship.  In  a 
carriage  we  visited  objects  of  historic,  civil  and  social  in- 
terest, and  talked  over  many  subjects,  for  he  was  inquisi- 
tive rather  than  communicative.  As  he  had  been  school 
inspector  in  England,  and  was  the  son  of  a  great  school- 
master, our  schools  much  interested  him.  He  did  not  im- 
press me  as  a  sound  observer,  for  he  generalized  hastily  as 
to  people  and  institutions  from  narrow  data.  Archbishop 
Tait,  of  Canterbury,  whose  life  is  interesting  and  instruc- 
tive, said:  "I  despair  of  knowing  anything  for  certain  of 
the  real  life  of  any  people  without  living  long  amongst 
them."  How  much  we  have  suffered  at  the  South  from 
the  hasty  conclusions  of  Pullman-car  observers!  Mr. 
Arnold  lectured  at  night  in  Mozart  Hall.  He  read  closely, 
and  excited  some  adverse  comments,  for  many  of  us  had 
read  the  lecture,  which  had  previously  appeared  in  an  Eng- 
lish magazine,  and  in  "Littell."  The  offence  to  our  pro- 
vincialism was  somewhat  softened  when  we  learned  that  a 
few  nights  before  a  Boston  audience  had  been  served  with 
the  same  "cold  soup." 

Other  desultory  notes  of  his  chance  associations 
with,  or  reminiscences  of  Dean  Stanley,  Beresford 
Hope,  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  Bright,  Gladstone, 
Mr.  Bryce,  and  Spurgeon,  are  found  in  his  journals 
and  note  books. 

In  1875  I  heard  Dean  Stanley,  in  Westminster,  preach 
a  funeral  discourse  on  Bishop  Thirlwall,  and  witnessed  the 
burial. 

On  5  October,  1875,  I  dined  at  Col.  Archer  Anderson's 
with  the  Dean.  Low  in  stature,  wore  knee-pants,  low- 
quartered  shoes  with  silver  buckles,  "shad-bellied"  coat; 
had  the  usual  English  mutton-chop  whiskers;  had  on  the 
medal  of  the  Deanery  of  Westminster,  a  circular  gold 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         387 

piece,  with  three  crowns,  shamrock  and  thistle. — Quiet, 
unostentatious,  pleasant;  did  not  smoke.  Pleased  with 
references  to  his  books,  and  by  allusions  to  him  in  "Tom 
Brown  at  Rugby." — Said  Dr.  Arnold  ruled  more  by  "awe" 
than  by  law.  In  after  life,  became  rather  intimate;  but 
could  never  quite  overcome  his  fear.  Rather  shocked  once, 
when  Bunsen,  in  earnest  conversation,  slapped  Arnold  on 
the  knees.  Contrasted  Grant  and  Dom  Pedro  of  Brazil, 
rather  unfavorably  as  to  Grant,  showing  he  did  not  know 
the  great  general.  He  called  Bishop  Ellicott  "Charles," 
and  Trevelyan  "George;"  said  Macaulay  attended  wor- 
ship, and  was  an  ordinarily  "rehgious"  man. 

The  Dean  had  an  unusually  large  acquaintance  and 
friendship  outside  of  the  clergy,  and  was  especially  a  fa- 
vorite with  Americans.  In  his  ecclesiastical  opinions,  he 
was  rather  a  combination  of  Broad  Church  and  Liberal, 
and  hence  drew  upon  himself  the  "reptilian  criticism"  of 
some  Ritualistic  newspapers.  His  "Christian  Institu- 
tions" frankly  conceded  that  primitive  baptism  was  by 
immersion;  and  when  the  statue  of  John  Bunyan,  the 
"immortal  Baptist  tinker,"  and  author  of  "Pilgrim's 
Progress"  was  unveiled,  by  a  natural  fitness  of  things  he 
made  a  delightful  address.  A  churchly  paper,  in  comment- 
ing on  the  event,  with  vitriolic  malice  said  that  when  the 
statue  of  the  Devil  was  finished,  the  fittest  person  to  un- 
veil it  would  be  the  Dean  of  Westminster. 

His  handwriting  was  undecipherable;  and  answers  to 
invitations  to  dinner  were  sometimes  returned,  that  the 
hostess  might  ascertain  whether  there  was  an  acceptance 
or  declination. 

In  April,  1876,  returning  home  after  nearly  a  year's 
absence  in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa,  I  tarried  for  a  season 
in  London,  and  in  the  Lake  District  in  England.  Having 
a  letter  of  introduction  from  the  Governor  of  Virginia, 
which  had  been  previously  presented,  I  accepted  an  invi- 
tation to  breakfast  from  Beresford  Hope,  then  representing 
Cambridge  University  in  the  British  Parliament.    At  the 


388      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

table  were  Lady  Hope,  somewhat  of  an  invalid,  and  who, 
as  the  sister  of  Lord  Salisbury,  had  a  title  in  which  her  hus- 
band did  not  share;  several  daughters,  one  of  whom  was  to 
be  married  the  following  week;  and  a  son,  a  student  at 
Cambridge,  who  was  in  a  state  of  great  excitement  because 
of  a  boat-race  to  occur  that  day  on  the  Thames  between 
the  crews  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 

Mr.  Hope,  a  stout,  near-sighted,  old  English  gentleman, 
received  me  courteously  and  cordially.  The  breakfast  was 
such  as  is  usual  in  English  families.  What  was  singular, 
no  servant  appeared  at  the  table,  although  several  liveried 
men  were  quite  obsequious  in  opening  doors,  taking  hats, 
wrappings,  etc.  Host  and  daughters  served  the  Coffee,  but 
the  substantial  food  was  on  a  side-table,  and  each  person 
was  expected  to  get  whatever  was  needed  or  desired. 

Through  Mr.  Hope's  kindness,  I  secured  a  seat  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  where  for  several  hours  I  witnessed 
the  proceedings  and  heard  the  debates.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Hope  was  a  politician,  having  entered  Parliament  in  1841, 
and  an  author,  having  written  a  number  of  pamphlets  and 
books.  Possessing  great  wealth,  he  published  the  well- 
known  Saturday  Review,  a  periodical  of  much  smartness, 
which  gave  a  substantial  aid  to  young  and  needy  writers, 
some  of  whom  became  distinguished.  Among  these  were 
Salisbury;  Sir  William  Vernon  Harcourt,  the  great 
Liberal  leader;  Morley,  the  chosen  biographer  of  Glad- 
stone; and  Stephen,  a  well-known  English  judge  and 
writer  of  law-books. 

Among  Mr.  Hope's  contributions  to  literature  were 
pamphlets  and  books  on  the  American  War.  He  was  an 
ardent  friend  of  the  South  in  that  struggle,  and  was 
chiefly  instrumental  in  having  erected  the  bronze  statue  of 
Stonewall  Jackson,  which  is  in  the  Capitol  Square  of  Rich- 
mond. 

The  following  entry  in  the  journal  was  made  at 
Richmond,  under  date  of  February  6,  1880: — 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         389 

Went  to  Mozart  Hall  and  heard  Hon.  Charles  Parnell, 
M.  P.,  and  Mr.  Dillon,  two  Irish  agitators,  discuss  the 
famine  in  Ireland,  and  as  the  cause  thereof,  the  land- 
tenure.    Facts  interesting,  badly  presented. 

Of  an  evening  spent  with  John  Bright,  he  records 
this  impression: — 

In  the  House  of  Commons  I  once  heard  a  short  speech 
from  John  Bright,  the  Quaker  Commoner.  He  had  a  clear, 
musical  voice,  commanded  most  respectful  attention,  and 
his  manner  of  speech  was  earnest  and  forcible,  and  wholly- 
free  from  that  halting,  stammering  utterance,  which  so 
many  English  speakers  and  talkers  affect.  In  1886  during 
the  Queen's  Jubliee,  I  was  in  England,  and  was  invited  to 
dinner  by  our  Minister,  the  Hon.  E.  J.  Phelps.  About 
twenty  persons  were  present,  some  of  great  distinction, 
whose  names  and  faces  I  should  have  been  glad  to  know; 
but  because  of  the  stupid  prevalent  custom  of  non-intro- 
duction, I  was  presented  to  only  one  guest,  and  he  was  Mr. 
Bright,  who  sat  between  Murat  Halstead  and  myself.  He 
was  very  reticent;  seemed  absent-minded  or  absorbed  in 
his  own  thoughts,  and  inclined  me  to  suspect  that  his  de- 
fection from  Mr.  Gladstone  and  alliance  with  the  Conser- 
vatives on  the  Home  Rule  question  was  due,  as  the  Lib- 
erals charged,  to  a  loss  of  that  vivacious,  springy  intellect 
which  had  previously  made  him  such  a  strong  debater. 
During  the  evening,  inquiring  whether  I  was  an  American, 
he  said:  "Your  country  is  a  very  remarkable  one;"  and 
added  the  inquiry,  "To  what  do  you  attribute  its  great- 
ness?" My  reply  was:  "That  is  a  very  difficult  question. 
To  answer  it  properly  would  require  a  volume;  but  I  would 
mention  a  few  causes  which  He  on  the  surface."  I  sug- 
gested, absence  of  neighbors;  immense  areas  of  fertile  land; 
energy  of  free  institutions;  freedom  of  trade  among  the 
States;  Home  Rule,  or  local  self-government;  and  absolute 
religious  liberty.  When  Home  Rule  was  instanced,  he 
shrugged  his  shoulders;  but  evinced  pleasure  when  I  speci- 


390      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

fied  the  inter-State  free-trade,  and  soul  liberty.  On  the 
last  he  made  an  emphatic  comment  of  approval,  and  gave 
us  credit  for  our  superiority,  in  that  respect,  over  all  other 
nations. 

It  has  been  noted  on  an  earlier  page,  that  in  1890, 
Curry  had  met  in  Richmond,  the  distinguished 
English  statesman  and  author,  whose  great  work, 
''The  American  Commonwealth,"  is  a  classic  exhi- 
bition of  knowledge  of  a  foreign  country's  institu- 
tions, achieved  by  an  alien.  Late  in  life,  Curry 
wrote  of  Mr.  Bryce  as  follows: — 

"Apropos  of  the  veto-power,  I  once  related  to  Mr. 
Bryce  the  conversation"  (heretofore  detailed)  "with  Mr. 
Chamberlain;  and  he  inquired  whether  such  an  arbitrary, 
one-man  power  did  not,  because  of  its  inconsistency  with 
our  form  of  government,  make  the  Executive  who  used  it 
unpopular.  On  the  contrary,  I  told  him,  it  had  had  no 
such  effect.  Generally,  except  in  Mr.  Cleveland's  vetoes 
of  Pension  Bills,  the  Congress  and  the  people  approved. 
To  an  inquiry  as  to  the  principal  arguments  in  favor  of  the 
retention  of  such  a  power,  I  referred  to  the  effort  made  by 
Mr.  Clay  and  the  Whig  party  in  1842  to  modify  or  restrain 
the  exercise,  and  its  decisive  defeat,  brought  about  largely 
by  Mr.  Calhoun's  unanswerable  argument.  'Did  you 
ever  read  that  speech? '  I  asked.  He  had  never  heard  of 
it.  I  begged  him  to  read  it,  saying  that  when  he  finished, 
he  would  write  after  it,  Q.  E.  D." 

"In  a  delightful  interview  with  Mr.  Gladstone  in  Lon- 
don, in  1887,  in  company  with  Dr.  Aubery,  the  author  of 
the  excellent '  History  of  the  English  People,'  I  ventured  to 
suggest  a  visit  to  America,  the  enthusiastic  welcome  he 
would  receive,  and  the  general  gratification  of  his  'Kin 
Beyond  the  Sea,'  had  given  our  people.  He  replied  that 
he  was  too  old  and  too  busy  to  cross  the  ocean;  but  he 
had  a  young   friend,  Mr.   Bryce,  who  had  three  times 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         391 

crossed  the  ocean  for  the  study  of  the  people  and  the  in- 
stitutions of  our  great  country,  and  his  book  would  be 
worthy  of  the  subject.  'The  American  Commonwealth' 
has  more  than  fulfilled  that  prediction;  and,  because  later 
and  written  by  an  Englishman,  is  superior  to  De  Tocque- 
ville." 

One  wishes  for  a  more  vivid  picture  of  Gladstone 
from  Curry,  his  presence,  manner,  speech.  He 
greatly  admired  the  great  Englishman  and  wrote  a 
sketch  of  him,  but  the  critical  impulse  was  not 
strong  in  Curry.  His  forte  was  not  analysis  and 
delineation  and  subtle  portrayal,  but  exhortation 
and  persuasion. 

It  has  been  stated  in  a  former  chapter  that,  in  the 
July  of  1867,  Curry,  then  on  his  first  European  tour, 
heard  Spurgeon  preach  in  London;  and  that  in  the 
following  October  he  heard  him  again  and  made  his 
acquaintance.  Of  the  first  occasion  when  he  listened 
to  him,  he  made  a  note  ten  days  later. 

At  6  p.  M., — night,  as  it  is  called,  although  the  sun 
was  two  hours  high,  I  went  to  the  tabernacle  to  hear  Spur- 
geon. In  the  morning  I  had  been  informed  that  he  was 
"out  of  to^vn."  In  the  evening  I  determined  to  ascertain 
for  myself,  and  was  unfortunately  too  late  for  the  intro- 
ductory services.  Just  as  I  entered  the  spacious  taber- 
nacle,— a  large  room  with  three  circular  galleries,  which 
were  densely  packed,  every  available  foot  being  occupied 
by  sitter  or  stander, — I  heard  a  clear,  distinct  voice  read- 
ing a  hymn.  .  .  .  The  whole  congregation,  at  least 
five  thousand,  joined  in  singing,  using  the  familiar  tune  of 
"Ortonville."  Then  came  a  fervent  prayer.  Afterwards 
followed  the  sermon,  about  thirty-five  minutes  in  length. 
There  is  no  pulpit  in  the  building.  The  preacher  stood  in 
the  first  gallery;  and,  after  reading  his  text,  leaned  against 
the  railing.    His  text  was  Luke  VII,  41,  42,    Without  pre- 


392      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

liminary  remark,  except  a  brief  ejaculatory  prayer  for  the 
Spirit's  help,  he  stated  the  division.  .  .  .  There  was 
nothing  very  striking  or  original  in  the  discourse;  and  yet 
he  commanded  the  undivided  attention  of  the  whole  mul- 
titude. If  the  sermon  I  heard  be  a  fair  specimen  of  thought 
and  delivery  (and  I  think  it  was  not),  I  have  heard  fifty 
preachers  in  the  United  States,  who,  as  mere  pulpit  ora- 
tors, are  superior  to  him.  Dr.  Fuller  is  unapproachably 
ahead  of  him.  Was  I,  then,  disappointed?  And  in  what 
consists  his  power? 

So  many  accounts  had  been  received  from  those  who 
had  heard  him,  that  I  was  not  much  disappointed.  The 
secret  of  his  power  is  not  a  unit.  It  is  manifold.  He  has  a 
voice,  wonderful  not  so  much  for  its  strength  as  for  its 
clearness  and  distinctness.  Directly  opposite  to  him,  and 
in  a  remote  part  of  the  building,  I  caught  every  syllable. 
His  utterance  is  neither  slow  nor  rapid.  A  reporter,  I 
should  judge,  could  easily  take  down  his  words.  He  is  a 
man  of  earnestness,  enthusiasm,  prayer,  faith.  His  preach- 
ing is  practical,  pointed,  personal  and  scriptural.  He  loves 
Jesus.  He  talks  about  Jesus.  He  knows  no  other  name  as 
the  foundation  of  a  sinner's  hope,  than  Jesus.  .  .  . 
With  a  vein  of  humor  in  his  composition,  he  often  excites  a 
smile; — never  boisterous  or  irreverent  laughter.  The  phil- 
osophy of  his  success  is,  an  earnest  and  believing  proc- 
lamation of  the  good  news  of  salvation  through  Jesus 
Christ. 

In  the  following  October,  after  hearing  Spurgeon 
again,  and  making  his  acquaintance,  Curry  wrote  in 
a  letter  to  the  Religious  Herald,  under  the  caption  of 
''A  Sunday  in  London,"  a  further  account  of  the 
English  preacher. 

.  .  .  The  house  was  crowded.  .  .  .  Spurgeon 
preached.  It  was  his  first  sermon  for  four  weeks,  as  he  had 
been  sick.    I  never  saw  a  more  attentive  congregation.    I 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         393 

have  seen  people  more  wrought  upon  by  human  speech, 
but  every  eye  was  fixed  and  every  mind  comprehended. 
The  sermon  was  a  direct,  earnest,  practical  enforcement  of 
Scriptural  truth. 

Spurgeon  is  now  a  recognized  fact — an  acknowledged 
influence — a  felt  power.  He  has  been  sneered  at,  written 
at,  ridiculed,  misrepresented,  slandered;  but  still  there  is 
no  wane  in  his  popularity  or  success,  nor  any  change  of 
tactics,  nor  any  cessation  of  aggressive  effort.  .  .  . 
Strictly  and  rhetorically  speaking,  Spurgeon  is  not  an 
orator.  A  score  of  men  could  be  mentioned  who  are  his 
superiors  as  a  mere  speaker.  His  strength  is  not  in  his 
oratorical  abilities.  Of  course  he  is  not  deficient  in  these 
respects.  His  person  is  not  commanding.  His  voice  is  not 
particularly  mellifluous.  His  gesticulation  is  ordinary, 
and  he  is  not,  in  my  judgment,  pre-eminent  for  logic  or 
eloquence.  How  then  has  Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon,  at 
the  age  of  33,  become  in  the  estimation  of  so  many,  the 
prince  of  living  preachers? 

His  voice  is  clear  and  his  articulation  almost  perfect. 
His  language  is  strong,  vigorous  Saxon;  his  style  easy  and 
flowing,  and  at  the  same  time  terse  and  condensed.  His 
method  is  natural,  perspicuous,  orderly;  and  the  most  un- 
cultivated can  remember  his  divisions.  He  has  a  marvel- 
lous fecundity  and  appositeness  of  illustration,  and  his 
figures  and  images,  like  the  caryatides  in  architecture,  give 
both  strength  and  ornament  to  his  discourse.  .  .  .  He 
has  entire  command  of  his  resources,  his  voice  and  emo- 
tions; and  his  speaking  never  descends  to  mere  declama- 
tion. But  his  power  lies  back  of  all  these  auxiliaries.  He 
is  a  man  of  earnestness,  sincerity,  piety,  prayer,  faith,  and 
full  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  is  a  consecrated  man.  His 
heart  is  in  the  ministry.  His  soul  is  afire  with  the  love  of 
God,  and  zeal  for  perishing  sinners.  He  preaches,  more 
than  any  one  I  ever  heard,  right  at  each  individual  hearer, 
and  he  preaches  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  alone  as  the  Saviour 
of  sinners. 


394     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

In  April  of  1876  he  wrote  in  his  journal  about 
Spurgeon : — 

I  now  purpose  an  account  of  a  Sunday  in  London,  with 
some  thoughts  suggested  by  the  worship  and  the  preach- 
ers. 

Of  course,  Spurgeon  was  my  first  choice.  I  have  an  in- 
variable rule  to  hear  J.  A.  B.  (John  A.  Broadus)  once  on  a 
Sabbath  if  I  am  where  he  preaches;  and  a  similar  rule 
might  be  adopted,  with  like  results,  if  one  is  where 
Spurgeon  preaches. 

Curry's  reminiscences  of  the  great  English  religious 
exhorter  may  be  concluded  with  an  extract  from  one 
of  his  contributions  in  March,  1892,  to  the  Religious 
Herald: — 

The  numerous  announcements  of  publications  relating 
to  Spurgeon  and  his  extraordinary  career,  and  the  eager 
haste  with  which  compilers  and  publishers  are  seeking  to 
get  before  the  public,  are  the  proof  of  the  anxiety  with 
which  everything  authentic  pertaining  to  the  great 
preacher  is  read.  Some  one,  in  giving  an  account  of  a  mem- 
orial meeting,  ascribed  to  me  an  intimacy  with  him,  which 
I  had  not  the  honor  to  possess.  It  was  my  privilege  to 
hear  him  preach  a  number  of  times  from  1867  onwards;  to 
get  an  occasional  letter  from  him;  and  to  enjoy  a  brief  com- 
panionship at  his  home  and  under  his  roof.  It  so  happens 
that  a  letter,  written  to  one  of  my  children  in  1875,  lies 
before  me,  and  in  it  an  account  is  given  of  a  Sunday  in 
London,  when  I  heard  Liddon,  Parker  and  Spurgeon. 

This  paragraph  is  followed  by  an  account,  sub- 
stantially similar  to  that  given  above,  of  his  estimate 
of  Spurgeon's  methods  and  abilities;  and  of  a  visit 
to  the  preacher's  home.     It  is  clear  that  the  great 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         395 

preacher  interested  him  and  stirred  his  critical 
faculties  more  than  the  statesmen  and  lawgivers. 

Tm-ning  now  to  others  with  whom  Curry  was  more 
intimately  acquainted,  we  find  in  his  memorabilia, 
further  reminiscences  than  those  already  given,  of 
Joseph  LeConte,  Benjamin  Hill,  Linton  and  Alex- 
ander H.  Stephens,  William  L.  Yancey,  Sergeant  S. 
Prentiss,  Howell  Cobb,  Robert  Toombs  and  Judah 
P.  Benjamin. 

First,  of  LeConte,  who  in  his  '^ Autobiography" 
tells  of  the  college  career  of  himself  and  his  brother, 
Lewis,  but  seems  to  make  no  mention  by  name  of 
any  other  of  his  classmates  or  college  mates: — 

As  LeConte  became  the  most  distinguished  of  all  my 
fellow  collegians,  as  an  author  and  a  scientist,  it  may  be  of 
interest  to  state  that  he  and  his  brother,  natives  of  Liberty 
County  (Georgia)  which  gave  more  students  to  the  Col- 
lege than  any  other  County  except  Clarke,  were  class- 
mates and  room-mates.  Both  were  noted  for  their  un- 
blemished purity  of  morals,  courtesy  of  demeanor,  studi- 
ous habits  and  general  popularity.  Lewis  had  much  na- 
tive talent  in  drawing  and  sculpture.  "Joe,"  as  he  was 
called,  played  on  the  flute  exquisitely;  and  while  his  class- 
standing  was  fair,  he  gave  no  special  promise  of  the  dis- 
tinction in  science  he  subsequently  attained, — no  prophecy 
of  the  exalted  place  he  won  and  merited  in  the  scientific 
and  literary  world.  These  adjectives  do  not  convey  a 
proper  idea  of  his  many-sidedness;  for  geology,  biology, 
optics,  philosophy,  theology  and  education  enjoyed  his 
attention.  His  orthodox  views  on  Evolution  and  the 
Bible  gave  comfort  to  many  pious  people  who  feared  that 
modern  science  was  undermining  their  faith.  He  demon- 
strated the  consistency  of  science  and  religion,  and  re- 
tained unwaveringly  his  connection  with  the  Presbyterian 
Church  and  his  profession  of  personal  faith  in  Christ. 


/ 


396      J.  L.  M.  CURKY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Of  Benjamin  H.  Hill,  the  great  Georgian,  Curry- 
says  : — 

Ben  Hill  was  a  fellow-student  of  the  class  of  1844,  and 
he  was  brilliant  and  popular,  and  gave  promise  of  that  re- 
markable ability  which  made  him  a  conspicuous  debater 
in  the  council-halls  of  the  country,  and  his  early  death  an 
irreparable  calamity  to  his  beloved  South. 

As  has  been  heretofore  recorded,  he  first  met 
Alexander  H.  Stephens  during  his  college  days  at 
Athens. 

"It  has  been  my  good  fortune,"  he  wrote  in  an  article  in 
the  Atlanta  Constitution  in  1899,  "to  have  seen  and  heard 
many  distinguished  Georgians,  and  with  not  a  few  I  have 
enjoyed  relations  of  intimacy  or  friendship.  A  long  cata- 
logue comes  to  my  memory,  embracing  Bartow,  Law, 
Lawton,  the  Jacksons,  the  Crawfords,  the  Cobbs,  Nesbit, 
Murray,  Jenkins,  the  Stephenses,  Dougherty,  Hillyer, 
Well,  Tucker,  Pierce,  Haygood,  Iverson,  the  Colquitts, 
Hall,  Hill,  Barnett,  Grady,  Berrien,  Johnson,  Brown  and 
others.     .     .     . 

When  a  small  boy  in  my  native  country  of  Lincoln,  I 
was  present  at  a  session  of  the  Superior  Court  over  which 
William  H.  Crawford  presided,  and  at  which  were  present 
such  attorneys  as  Joseph  Henry  Lumpkin,  Francis  Cone, 
Robert  Toombs  and  Andrew  J.  Miller.  ...  At  subse- 
quent courts  Alexander  H.  Stephens  attended.  The  phys- 
ical man  was  in  marked  contrast  to  the  intellectual;  for 
there  was  scarcely  flesh  enough  on  his  bones  to  cover  his 
brilliant  genius.  Tall,  cadaverous,  apparently  bloodless, 
weighing  about  a  hundred  pounds,  he  was  capable  at  the 
bar,  on  the  stump,  in  legislative  halls,  of  as  much  work  as 
the  most  athletic  and  robust.  In  the  years  1839-1843,  I 
saw  him  several  times  in  Athens.  .  .  .  Going  one  day 
into  Linton's  room  in  the  "old  college"  building,  I  was  in- 
troduced to  "Brother  Aleck,"  who  was  lying  on  the  bed, 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         397 

and  most  unprepossessing,  except  as  his  eyes  shone  with 
unusual  lustre.  .  .  .  From  that  day  until  his  death, 
while  he  was  in  Federal  and  Confederate  Congresses,  Vice- 
president  of  the  Confederacy  and  Governor  of  Georgia,  I 
saw  him  often,  and  because  of  association  and  friendship 
with  Linton,  he  treated  me  with  much  consideration  and 
kindness. 

He  was  a  ready  and  able  debater,  quick  at  repartee, 
careful  in  preparation  of  his  speeches,  clear  and  logical  in 
the  presentation  of  his  arguments,  and  at  times  impas- 
sioned and  eloquent.  His  articulation  was  distinct;  and 
frequently  his  voice  assumed  an  upward  and  downward 
intonation,  a  semi-musical  swell  and  fall,  acquired  prob- 
ably from  much  speaking  in  the  open  air.  In  the  House  of 
Representatives  at  Washington,  where  few  were  listened 
to,  he  always  commanded  undivided  attention;  and  once, 
during  his  speech  on  the  admission  of  Oregon  as  a  State 
into  the  Union,  the  applause,  begun  on  the  floor,  was  taken 
up  by  the  galleries  and  continued,  until  it  amounted  to  an 
ovation. 

.  .  .  .  The  mind  of  Mr.  Stephens  was  fruitful  of 
suggestions ;  his  opinions,  matured  by  experience  and  pro- 
found study,  were  conservative;  his  heart  was  hopeful. 
.  .  .  .  Social  in  his  nature,  loving  human  companion- 
ship, fond  of  talking,  he  was  a  coveted  guest  at  many 
homes. 

He  adds  of  Stephens,  in  his  journal: — 

On  20th  April,  1874,  Mr.  Stephens  was  in  Richmond, 
and  was  very  feeble, — little  more  than  a  walking  skeleton. 
His  intellect  was  undimmed;  his  eye  sparkled  like  a  big 
diamond;  and  his  conversation  was  interesting  and  instruc- 
tive. Once  when  I  called,  I  found  Governors  Wise  and 
Kemper  with  him;  and  he  gave  a  graphic  account  of  the 
visit  of  the  Confederate  Commissioners  to  Gen.  Grant;  of 
the  General's  honesty,  patriotism  and  ability,  he  expressed 
himself  in  warm  and  eulogistic  terms.  >  ,     , 


398      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

S.  S.  Prentiss,  William  L.  Yancey  and  Wendell 
Phillips  profoundly  captivated  and  impressed  him. 
Of  Prentiss  he  wrote  in  1877: — 

Prior  to  the  Whig  nomination  (in  1844),  I  heard  S.  S. 
Prentiss  of  Mississippi,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  men  in 
America,  make  a  speech  to  a  packed  audience  in  Faneuil 
Hall.  It  was  one  of  the  most  thrilling  specimens  of  plat- 
form oratory  I  ever  listened  to,  and  he  carried  his  audience 
at  pleasure. 

Writing  in  1890,  in  the  Religious  Herald,  some 
"Reminiscences  of  the  Early  Days  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Movement,"  he  says  of  Wendell  Phillips, 
the  great  abolitionist  agitator: — 

To  have  heard  Phillips  forty-five  years  ago  was  a  par- 
tial education  for  a  young  student.  He,  S.  S.  Prentiss,  and 
W.  L.  Yancey,  were  the  great  orators  of  this  country. 

His  admiration  of  the  stirring  eloquence  and 
extraordinary  oratorical  gifts  of  Prentiss  and  of 
Yancey  never  waned;  and  in  his  latter  years  he 
confirmed  his  earlier  judgment  of  them  in  this 
statement : — 

I  have  been  very  often  asked  who  was  the  greatest  orator 
I  ever  heard.  .  .  .  Speaking  is  so  various,  that  it  can 
not  be  classified.  Some  is  compact,  some  diffusive;  some 
sober,  some  humorous;  some  logical,  some  rhetorical;  some 
argumentative,  some  didactic;  some  dry,  some  very  enter- 
taining. Oratory  and  eloquence  are  by  no  means  identi- 
cal. My  definition  of  oratory  would  be,  "Let  us  go  and 
fight  Philip."  This  requires  a  great  occasion,  a  crisis,  the 
suspension  of  human  interests  on  a  single  hour,  on  an  over- 
shadowing, imperative  issue.  Demosthenes,  Mirabeau 
and  Henry  were  orators.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to 
hear  Canovas,  Sagasta,  Moret  and  Castelar  in  Spain; 
Gambetta  in  France;  Balfour,  Fawcett,  D'Israeli,  Bright 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         399 

and  Gladstone  in  England;  Choate,  Webster,  Phillips, 
Douglas,  Benjamin,  Bowden,  Corwin,  Seward,  McDuffie 
and  others  in  the  United  States,  They  differed  widely. 
Each  had  his  excellencies;  but  as  orators  taking  captive 
unwilling  audiences,  holding  in  possession  emotions,  con- 
victions, will,  person  and  property, — driving  to  conclu- 
sions which  surrendered  everything  to  the  speaker, — those 
who  in  my  judgment  were  the  greatest  were  S.  S.  Prentiss 
and  William  L.  Yancey, — one  a  native  of  Maine,  the  other 
of  South  Carohna. 

Curry  never  failed  to  express  his  admiration  of 
Yancey;  and  he  records  his  having,  when  an  elector 
on  the  Buchanan  ticket,  dined  with  the  great  orator 
at  the  meeting  of  the  electoral  college  at  Mont- 
gomery. Another  note  of  his  about  Yancey  is  that 
the  latter  said  to  him,  by  way  of  advice,  when  he 
was  a  law-student:  "Young  man,  if  you  wish  to 
succeed  at  the  bar,  learn  to  think  on  your  legs," — 
a  more  valuable,  if  more  difficult  lesson  to  learn  than 
that  of  the  famous  orator  and  wit,  Tom  Corwin,  of 
Ohio,  who  advised  a  young  disciple  of  Blackstone, 
inquiring  the  road  to  success:  ''Be  solemn,  young 
man!    Be  solemn  as  an  ass!" 

Among  the  distinguished  Georgians  who  were 
Curry's  friends,  he  often  spoke  and  wrote  of  Robert 
Toombs  and  Howell  Cobb.  Associating  Toombs 
and  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  he  said: — 

Perhaps  no  two  public  men  occupying  distinguished 
positions  in  our  country  ever  sustained  a  longer  and  closer 
intimacy  than  Stephens  and  Robert  Toombs.  Born  in  ad- 
joining counties,  educated  at  the  same  college,  practising 
law  in  the  same  courts,  they  were  as  Damon  and  Pythias. 
.  .  .  .  Physically  they  were  antipodes;  Stephens, 
delicate,  with  yellow  complexion,  frail  body,  his  survival 


400     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

amid  severe  labors,  physical  weaknesses,  a  sword-thrust 
and  the  fall  of  a  gate  upon  him,  seemed  a  miracle;  Toombs, 
robust,  vigorous,  boisterous,  aggressive,  a  Boanerges,  was 
the  impersonation  of  health. 

I  saw  Toombs  for  the  first  time  in  attendance  upon  the 
Superior  Court  of  Lincoln  County.  ...  He  was  then 
about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  was  a  model  of  manly 
beauty.  From  that  time  until  his  death  I  saw  him  fre- 
quently, and  never  received  anything  at  his  hands  except 
generous  hospitality,  marked  courtesy  and  flattering  re- 
gard. .  .  .  By  a  sort  of  logical  and  political  fitness  of 
things,  he  became  the  first  Secretary  of  State  of  the  Con- 
federacy. President  Davis  and  he  were  not  built  on  the 
same  pattern,  and  friction  was  inevitable.  Restive  as  a 
subordinate  of  the  President,  and  impatient  for  service  in 
another  field,  he  entered  the  army,  where  for  reasons  not 
desirable  to  be  stated,  he  did  not  add  to  his  reputation  nor 
achieve  any  military  renown.  With  gifts  rarely  surpassed,  he 
reached  the  art  of  seizing  the  genius  and  tendency  of  a  criti- 
cal epoch.  His  ability  was  perhaps  more  destructive  than 
constructive.  During  the  French  Revolution  some  men  were 
called  "architects  of  ruin."  I  recall  a  dramatic  incident  in 
a  secret  session  of  the  Provisional  Congress,  held  in  the  Hall 
of  the  House  of  Deputies  in  the  Capitol  at  Richmond, 
when  the  success  of  the  Confederacy  was  under  considera- 
tion, and  foreign  succor,  financial  schemes,  and  other  ex- 
pedients were  under  discussion.  After  a  warm  debate, 
General  Toombs  took  the  floor,  and  in  less  than  an  hour 
delivered  one  of  the  most  powerful  speeches  I  ever  listened 
to,  on  our  available  means  of  safety.  Every  deputy  sat 
with  concentrated  and  rapt  attention,  amazed  at  the  ex- 
traordinary ability  of  the  man,  and  surprised  and  delighted 
at  the  seemingly  wise  and  adequate  scheme  which  was  pre- 
sented for  our  triumph.  When  he  closed,  there  was  si- 
lence, almost  painful,  for  a  considerable  time  in  the  body, 
when  Mr.  Robert  H.  Smith  of  Mobile  arose  and  said: 
"Mr.  President,  if  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  does  not 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         401 

bring  in  bills  to  carry  out  what  he  has  suggested,  he  is  a 
worse  traitor  than  Benedict  Arnold."  The  idea  of  Mr. 
Smith  was  that  no  one  comprehended  the  situation  as  did 
General  Toombs,  and  on  no  other  person  did  the  obliga- 
tion rest  as  heavily  for  devising  and  framing  the  adequate 
legislation. 

In  1859-1860,  while  a  representative  in  the  United 
States  Congress,  Curry  dined  frequently  at  the  home 
of  General  Cobb,  in  Washington,  who  was  then 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  whose  wife,  a  Lamar, 
was  a  relative  of  Curry's.  The  latter  knew  Cobb 
at  the  University  of  Georgia,  having  first  met  him 
there  when  he  came  to  deliver  political  speeches  be- 
fore the  local  club. 

"Howell  Cobb,"  he  says,  "was  a  remarkable  man, — not 
so  scholarly  as  his  younger  brother,  T.  R.  R.,  nor  so  studi- 
ous or  diligent  as  Stephens  or  Toombs,  but  with  quicker 
intellect  and  readier  faculty  of  adaptation,  because  of  re- 
sources on  unexpected  occasions,  and  of  what  some  writers 
call  the  genius  of  common  sense.  Inclined  to  corpulency, 
good-humored,  amiable,  cordial  in  manner  and  disposition, 
with  a  genial  nature  giving  sway  over  equals,  practical 
rather  than  theoretical,  he  was  a  devoted  husband,  and 
affectionate  father,  a  generous  friend,  and  emphatically  a 
people's  man." 

Not  the  least^  in  Curry's  opinion,  of  this  group  of 
Southern  statesmen,  was  Judah  P.  Benjamin.  In 
a  series  of  ''Recollections  of  Great  Southerners," 
published  in  the  Atlanta  Constitution  a  few  years 
before  his  death,  and  from  which  the  foregoing  ex- 
tracts about  Toombs  and  Howell  Cobb  are  taken, 
Curry  says  of  Benjamin: — 

His  parents  were  English  Jews,  who  on  their  way  to 
America  landed  in  one  of  the  West  Indies,  where  Judah 


402      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

^  was  born.  His  early  boyhood  was  spent  in  North  Carolina; 
but  removing  to  New  Orleans  he  was  called  to  the  bar  in 
1832,  and  won  high  respect  as  a  lawyer  and  advocate.  In 
1857  I  made  his  acquaintance,  when  he  was  a  Senator  with 
Slidell,  of  Trent  memory,  as  his  colleague.  He  was  a  low, 
stout,  genial,  smiling  man,  of  decided  Jewish  cast,  with 
bright,  black  eyes,  and  all  the  grace  and  suavity  of  a  pol- 
ished Frenchman,  looking  as  if  he  never  had  a  trouble.  To 
me  he  was  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  fascinating  men  I 
ever  met  in  pubhc  life.  While  Senator,  he  not  infrequently 
appeared  before  the  Supreme  Court;  and  when  he  was  to 
argue  a  case,  there  was  as  much  anxiety  to  hear  him  as 
there  is  now  to  hear  Joseph  Choate  or  James  C.  Carter. 
In  the  Senate,  where  were  such  men  as  Douglas,  Green, 
Sumner,  Pugh,  he  had  no  superior  as  a  debater.      One  of 

y  his  best  known  speeches,  which  during  its  delivery  filled 
the  galleries,  and  nearly  emptied  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, was  in  reply  to  Seward,  and  in  vindication  of  Judge 
■  Taney  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  The  exposure  of  the 
sophistry  and  misrepresentation  of  the  New  York  Senator 
was  something  terrible;  and  yet  after  the  numerous  and 
cordial  congratulations  were  over,  the  New  Yorker,  who 
had  listened  with  stolid  composure  to  the  merciless  casti- 
gation  and  exposure,  approached  Benjamin  and  shook 
hands  with  him.  Years  afterwards  I  asked  Benjamin 
what  Seward  had  the  cheek  to  say,  so  calmly,  after  the 
argument;  and  was  told  that  after  some  pleasant  compli- 
ment about  the  ability  of  the  speech,  Seward  took  mild 
exception  to  some  statement  as  to  his  position.    Another 

^  great  speech,  a  powerful  defence  of  State-rights,  heard 
with  admiration  by  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis  of  England,  was  made 
in  the  Senate  on  the  31st  of  December,  1860.  Benjamin 
was  collected  and  self-possessed  in  debate,  had  a  voice  as 
.  musical  as  the  chimes  of  silver  bells,  a  memory  like  Macau- 
lay's,  used  no  notes,  and  while  earnest  in  manner  and  de- 
livery, seemed  as  fresh  at  the  close  of  a  discourse  as  when 
he  uttered  the  first  sentence.     His  versatiUty  and  his 


FEIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         403 

capacity  for  work  were  immense,  and  he  turned  from  one 
subject  or  duty  to  another  with  such  facihty  and  clev- 
erness that  he  seemed  to  have  no  special  aptitudes  or 
preferences. 

Benjamin's  interesting  career  is  known  to  the 
English-speaking  world.  A  citizen,  successively,  of 
three  governments,  he  was  renowned  under  all. 
"The  little  Jew  has  stated  his  opponent  out  of 
court,"  whispered  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court  to  another,  on  the  occasion  of  Benjamin's 
opening  statement  in  his  first  case  before  that  august 
tribunal;  and  if,  as  Curry  says,  "he  seemed  to  have 
no  special  aptitude,"  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that 
one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest,  of  his  intel- 
lectual gifts, — illustrated  alike  in  his  speeches  and 
his  writings, — was  this  unique  power  of  exact  and 
lucid  statement. 

Among  the  noted  or  famous  preachers  of  America, 
Curry  himself  a  preacher  and  not  the  least  known, 
had  naturally  a  wide  and  intimate  circle  of  friends. 
In  addition  to  those  already  mentioned  in  these 
pages,  it  may  not  be  invidious  to  name  here  Basil 
Manly,  Philip  Schaff,  J.  P.  Boyce,  J.  B.  Jeter,  John 
A.  Broadus,  Moses  D.  Hoge,  J.  L.  Burrows,  W.  S. 
Plumer  and  Richard  Fuller.  At  the  inauguration 
of  Jefferson  Davis,  February  18,  1861,  he  was 
present,  and  heard  Manly's  prayer.  His  address 
before  the  World's  Evangelical  Alliance  at  New 
York,  in  1873,  was  made  at  the  request  of  Schaff, 
among  others.  Of  Plumer  and  Jeter  he  has  left 
the  record  of  some  pleasing  reminiscences: — 

On  10  November,  1868,  travelling  on  a  train  between 
Selma  and  Talladega,  Dr.  W.  S.  Plumer  was  my  compan- 
ion.    In  course  of  conversation,  he  pronounced  Andrew 


404      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Fuller's  "Gospel  its  Own  Witness"  to  be  the  best  defence 
of  Christianity  in  the  English  language.  He  further  said 
that  the  celebrated  astronomical  argument  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers was  more  forcibly  stated  by  Dr.  Gill. 

In  his  "  Recollections  of  a  Long  Life,"  Dr.  Jeter  says  the 
formation  of  an  African  church  in  Richmond,  which  he 
had  in  contemplation  in  1842,  did  not  receive  the  counte- 
nance of  some  Protestant  pastors  in  the  city.  To  a  sug- 
gestion for  a  meeting  of  the  clergy,  to  get  their  advice,  Dr. 
Plumer,  then  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church, 
said:  "Don't  do  it.  The  clergy  may  decide  against  your 
plan:  but  it  is  right;  go  forward  in  the  work;  and  if  you 
have  trouble,  I  will  stand  by  you."  When  an  effort  was 
being  made  to  secure  an  indictment  against  those  who  had 
the  meetings  of  the  church  in  charge,  the  Doctor  visited 
Dr.  Jeter,  and  said:  "I  wish  you  to  understand  that  in  any 
difficulties  you  may  have  concerning  the  African  church  I 
am  to  go  halves  with  you."  It  should  be  remembered  that 
this  noble  and  courageous  offer  was  made  sixty  years  ago. 

Of  Richard  Fuller,  he  wrote  in  the  Religious 
Herald: — 

Richard  Fuller  would  have  been  called  an  ugly  man. 
He  was  gigantic  in  stature,  with  shaggy  hair,  coarse  fea- 
tures, but  was  imperial,  imposing,  graceful  in  movement, 
with  varying  moods,  the  irresistible  rush  of  a  tornado,  the 
soft  sighing  of  a  gentle  zephyr — once  seen  in  his  majestic 
power,  never  forgotten.  He  was  a  rare  man,  a  combina- 
tion cf  contradictory  qualities,  and  in  pagan  days  would 
have  been  worshipped  as  a  Hercules,  or  the  god  of  elo- 
quence. Grace  subdued  him,  mastered  him,  consecrated 
his  powers,  made  him  a  little  child,  submissive,  affection- 
ate, obedient  at  his  Master's  feet.  Sometimes,  when 
aroused  and  indignant,  he  thundered  with  the  majesty  and 
wrath  of  Zeus  his  anathemas  against  falsehood  and  hypoc- 
risy, against  cowardice  and  crime ;  and  at  another  time  he 
had  a  child  on  his  shoulders,  romping  through  the  house  or 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         405 

in  the  yard  with  the  frolicsomeness  of  a  kitten.  He  had  a 
keen  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  was  an  inimitable  raconteur, 
and  often  charmed  or  convulsed  an  audience  or  circle  of 
friends  by  his  flashes  of  wit,  recital  of  amusing  incidents, 
or  ludicrous  presentations  of  personal  characteristics. 

Graduating  from  Harvard,  he  entered  upon  the  prac- 
tice of  the  law  in  Beaufort,  S.  C,  and  sprang  at  once  to  the 
front,  with  most  alluring  prospects  of  wealth,  position,  and 
fame.  Dr.  Daniel  Baker,  a  Presbyterian  evangelist,  held  a 
series  of  meetings,  and  Elliott  (afterwards  Bishop  in 
Georgia),  Fuller  and  others  were  "converted."  Fuller 
soon  entered  the  ministry  and  began  his  illustrious  career 
as,  perhaps,  the  foremost  man  in  the  American  pulpit, — cer- 
tainly ranking  alongside  of  Beecher,  Brooks  and  Broadus. 
He  had  two  controversies,  one  with  that  learned  prelate, 
Bishop  England,  on  the  tenets  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  the  other  with  Dr.  Wayland,  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, on  African  slavery  as  it  existed  in  the  Southern 
States.  The  latter  discussion,  marked  by  great  ability  on 
both  sides,  was  characterized  as  well  by  the  lowliest  spirit, 
and  not  a  word  was  written  by  either  which  was  in  the 
slightest  degree  offensive  or  needful  of  apology  or  explana- 
tion. These  men  remained  closest  friends  until  death  for 
a  time  separated  them,  and  Dr.  Wayland,  famed  for  phi- 
losophy and  learning,  once  remarked  that  he  would  cheer- 
fully surrender  whatever  learning  and  philosophy  he  had 
acquired  to  be  able  to  preach  as  Richard  Fuller  did. 

"In  estimating  preachers,"  says  Curry,  in  a  newspaper 
article,  "we  must  apply  a  different  standard.  Every 
preacher,  nearly,  occupies  a  pulpit,  lifted  above  the  people, 
and  separated  by  'a  great  gulf.'  Humor,  so  effective,  is 
eliminated,  tabooed,  and  only  such  bold  men  as  Beecher 
and  Spurgeon  broke  down  the  barrier.  Responses  and  in- 
quiries from  hearers,  so  suggestive,  awakening,  are  not 
allowed.  Generally  the  preacher  is  handicapped  by  a 
manuscript. 


406     J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

"Whom  have  I  heard?  Their  names  are  legion.  Ber- 
syer,  Pressense,  Pere  Hyacinthe,  in  France;  Cuming, 
Parker,  Maclaren,  Hall,  Stanley,  Farrar,  Liddon,  Spur- 
geon,  in  England;  Stow,  Park,  Parker, Lorimer,  Hall,  Greer, 
MacArthur,  Dixon,  Brooks,  Beecher,  Hoyt,  Jones,  Bur- 
rows, Duncan,  Poindexter,  Hawthorne,  Hoge,  Palmer, 
Galloway,  Pierce,  Behrends,  Stafford — well,  my  paper 
would  scarcely  hold  the  names  of  all.  For  a  single  sermon, 
Dr.  T.  G.  Jones  preached  the  most  powerful  one  I  ever 
heard,  and  George  Pierce  the  most  eloquent  one.  For 
Cyclopean  energy,  compulsive  appeal,  absorbedness  in 
Christ,  dramatic  force  (on  the  stage  he  would  have 
equalled  Macready  or  Booth  or  Irving),  Richard  Fuller 
had  no  superior;  for  tender  persuasiveness,  Manly,  Sr.,  had 
few  equals;  for  massive  intellect  and  exaltation  of  the  man 
in  man.  Brooks  was  Saul  among  the  Prophets.  To  select 
one  and  place  him  on  the  loftiest  pedestal  is  impossible. 
For  continuity  and  greatness  of  success,  for  number  and 
wide  circulation  of  sermons,  for  marvellous  capacity  in 
reaching  every  one  in  his  audience,  and  making  him  feel 
that  the  sermon  was  especially  intended  for  him  .  .  . 
Spurgeon  can  have  no  rival. 

"In  some  respects,  in  many  respects,  John  A.  Broadus 
was  without  a  superior.  Some  preachers  may,  in  occa- 
sional efforts,  have  excelled  him;  yet  as  a  stated  supply,  to 
sit  a  whole  year  under  one  man's  ministry,  he  would  have 
unhesitatingly  been  chosen.  At  conventions,  when  others 
preached  at  the  same  hour,  I  always  heard  him,  and  never 
regretted  it.  I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  seen  him 
with  a  manuscript,  and  yet  he  prepared  carefully  and  mi- 
nutely, not  trusting  to  a  full  mind  on  the  excitement  of  the 
occasion.  He  was  never  boisterous,  never  declamatory, 
never  tore  a  passion  into  tatters.  His  articulation  was 
distinct,  his  voice  was  'clear,  pervasive,  pathetic,  and  he 
possessed  such  simpHcity,  charm,  sincerity,  magnetism, 
power,  that  he  controlled  the  entire  audience.  An  inex- 
plicable quality  he  possessed  beyond  any  one  I  ever  heard, 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         407 

— in  the  same  sermon  he  secured  and  held  the  attention 
of,  and  entertained  and  instructed  ahke,  the  old  and  the 
young,  the  cultured  and  the  ignorant.  In  Dr.  Jones's  ad- 
mirable book  on  '  Religion  in  the  Army/  he  tells  us  of  the 
delight  and  the  success  with  which  Broadus  preached  in 
camps.  Lee  and  Jackson  and  Gordon  and  Hill  and  Ewell 
and  Early,  officers  and  privates  by  the  thousands,  in  sun- 
shine, in  rain,  in  cold,  in  darkness,  sat  or  stood  and  lis- 
tened, entranced,  subdued,  by  the  pleadings  of  the  holy 
man  of  God." 

Among  the  distinguished  men  of  the  Federal  Con- 
gress and  Cabinet,  of  earlier  and  later  times,  with 
whom  Curry  was  on  more  or  less  intimate  or  friendly 
terms,  he  makes  mention  of  Henry  Winter  Davis, 
John  Sherman,  Elihu  Washburne,  Thomas  S.  Bo- 
cock,  William  M.  Evarts  and  Thomas  F.  Bayard. 
Of  the  Presidents  he  counted  among  his  friends 
Messrs.  Buchanan,  Grant,  Hayes,  Cleveland  and 
Roosevelt.  This  reminiscence  of  Mr.  Buchanan  at 
the  White  House  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  in- 
creased cost  of  living,  now  ruling  in  our  social 
standards : — 

While  dining,  no  one  was  present  except  the  President, 
Miss  Harriet  Lane  and  myself.  He  said  that,  being  with- 
out a  family,  he  in  his  public  career  determined  to  be  satis- 
fied if  his  estate  reached  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It 
amounted  to  that  sum  before  he  became  President ;  and  so 
he  concluded  to  spend  liberally  his  salary,  which  then  was 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  per  annum.  "You  know," 
said  he,  "that  I  entertain  as  much  as  any  of  my  predeces- 
sors, and  yet  I  have  not  exhausted  what  is  allotted 
to  me." 

His  associations  with  many  of  the  generals  of  the 
Confederacy  during  the  progress  of  the  War  between 


408      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

the  States,  and  in  the  years  following  its  close,  have 
been  heretofore  mentioned  or  detailed  in  these  pages. 
Among  these,  there  was  none  whom  he  more  ad- 
mired than  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston. 

"Gen.  Johnston,"  he  writes  in  his  diary,  under  date  of 
August  28,  1877,  "told  me  that  he  and  Gen.  Lee  were  class- 
mates at  West  Point,  and  quite  intimate;  his  father 
having  been  an  adjutant  to  Gen.  Lee's  father  in  the  Rev- 
olution, the  friendship  was  hereditary, 
.  .  .  "  Generals  Jubal  Early  and  Joe  Hooker  were  at  the 
Military  Academy  at  the  same  time.  In  the  debating  so- 
ciety an  altercation  occurred  between  them,  and  Early 
walked  across  the  room  and  kicked  Hooker.  Hooker  did 
not  resent,  and  Southern  students  '  cut '  him  as  a  coward. 
In  the  Florida  War  Hooker  was  so  coolly  brave  as  to  win 
admiration  and  friendship.  In  the  Mexican  War  he  won 
the  appellation  of  'Fighting  Joe';  and  in  our  Civil  War 
he  retained  the  distinction." 

On  September  8  of  the  same  year,  while  at  the 
White  Sulphm*  Springs,  Cm'ry  wrote  in  his  diary: — 

In  a  conversation  with  General  J.  E.  Johnston,  he  said 
that  just  after  his  surrender  to  General  Sherman,  when 
they  were  alone,  General  Sherman  showed  him  a  telegram 
announcing  the  assassination  of  Lincoln,  remarking  that 
he  had  withheld  it  from  his  officers,  lest  they  might,  con- 
trary to  his  own  opinion,  hold  Confederates  responsible 
for  the  crime,  and  be  exasperated  against  them.  He  was 
debating  in  his  mind  how  to  communicate  the  intelligence, 
and  prevent  the  inference.  In  Sherman's  book,  it  appears 
that  the  information  was  given  in  general  order  that  night, 
the  complicity  of  Confederates  asserted. 

Sherman's  account  of  his  (J.'s)  behavior  at  the  surren- 
der is  purely  fictitious. 


FRIENDS   AND   ASSOCIATES         409 

On  March  24,  1891,  Curry  was  an  honorary  pall- 
bearer at  General  Johnston's  funeral.  Under  that 
date  the  Washington  Post  published  an  interview 
with  him  about  Johnston,  of  which  the  following  is 
an  extract: — 

He  was  a  very  reticent  man,  and  talked  but  little  about 
the  affairs  of  his  army  on  any  occasion.  He  was  the  most 
enthusiastic  and  scientific  soldier  I  ever  knew.  Often  at 
night,  when  we  were  riding  along  on  that  memorable  re- 
treat, he  would  talk  to  me  for  hours  about  the  famous  cam- 
paigns of  Wellington  or  Marlborough,  for  whom  he  seemed 
to  have  an  especial  admiration;  and,  of  course,  of  the  great 
campaigns  of  Napoleon.  He  was  as  familiar  with  all  those 
great  military  campaigns  as  I  with  my  a  b  c's.  He  was  a 
thorough  and  indefatigable  student  of  military  affairs. 
He  was  a  close  reader  of  Napier's  works,  and  of  the  dis- 
patches of  Napoleon  and  Wellington,  devouring  them  as  a 
student  would  a  work  on  mathematics  before  an  examina- 
tion. Military  works  and  problems  were  meat  and  drink 
to  him.  Though,  while  I  was  attached  to  his  staff,  we  were 
constantly  falling  back  before  Gen.  Sherman's  army.  Gen. 
Johnston  was  never  surprised.  He  seemed  always  to  know 
what  the  enemy  was  going  to  do  before  it  was  done.  He 
made  his  cavalry,  as  he  said  cavalry  should  be,  the  eyes 
and  ears  of  an  army.  In  consequence  his  officers  were 
able  to  report  to  him  constantly  the  enemy's  movements. 
I  once  saw  the  General  in  a  towering  rage,  and  only 
once.  .  .  .  Gen.  Sherman  always  had  the  highest 
regard  for  Johnston's  military  ability.  He  could  never 
hazard  anything  with  Johnston.  Johnston  was  firm, 
abrupt  in  his  manner  of  speaking,  and  thoroughly  self- 
reliant  ;  yet  he  was  kind-hearted,  a  true  friend,  and  very 
sympathetic. 

Col.  Harvie,  of  Johnston's  staff,  says  the  General  was 
the  first  military  man  this  country  has  produced.  Lee  was 
the  greatest  man,  Johnston  was  the  greatest  soldier. 


410     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Between  the  covers  of  the  httle  diaries,  and  scat- 
tered through  the  numerous  notes  and  newspaper 
chppings  which  Curry  preserved,  may  be  found  many 
other  stories,  incidents  and  reminiscences  concern- 
ing acquaintances  and  friends  of  his,  whose  names 
are  destined  to  illustrate  the  pages  of  contemporary 
history. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES 

If  Curry  may  not  be  reckoned  a  great  educational 
theorist  in  the  broadest  and  most  original  sense,  his 
writings  and  speeches  on  education  quite  clearly 
show  that  in  the  course  of  his  experience  he  had 
worked  out  and  developed  a  coherent  and  consistent 
scheme,  which  proved,  in  its  appHcation  to  the 
peculiar  conditions  of  the  time,  to  be  of  excellent 
practical  value.  This  scheme,  clearly  formulated 
about  certain  fundamental  propositions,  is  illustrated 
not  only  in  the  essays  on  educational  theory  that 
are  contained  in  the  pages  of  his  Reports  to  the 
Peabody  Board,  but  appears  perhaps  most  luminous 
in  the  various  speeches  and  addresses  made  by  him 
to  legislative  bodies,  upon  whom  he  was  seeking  to 
impress  his  theories  to  the  end  of  obtaining  their 
practical  application.  Yet  no  one  of  these  addresses 
contains  the  whole  of  his  educational  ideal,  which  is 
obtainable  only  by  segregating  and  co-ordinating 
the  cardinal  principles  upon  which  the  entire  scheme 
rests. 

A  primary  proposition  of  his  general  theory  is  that 
education  and  ethics  are  inseparable,  and  that  the 
development  of  the  ethics  which  should  accompany 
education  ought  not  to  stop  short  of  Christianity 
itself.  He  was  a  protagonist  for  school  and  church 
as  nearly  one  as  they  might  be  made;  and  it  was  his 

411 


412      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

custom,  in  theory  and  practice,  to  walk  from  the 
doorway  of  one  into  the  doorway  of  the  other. 

"  What  of  the  night?  "  he  said  at  Louisville,  Kentucky,  in 
1883.  "I  can  only  answer:  Do  what  lies  nearest  in  the 
light  of  duty  and  conscience  and  the  Scriptures,  and  leave 
results  to  God.  If  any  safe  solution  there  is,  it  must  be  in 
the  school-house  and  church  house,  in  education  and  in  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  bearing  in  mind  the  object  of  educa- 
tion is  not  so  much  the  imparting  of  knowledge  as  the  de- 
veloping of  powers  and  the  building  up  of  inward  strength 
of  character.  Education  is  no  Catholicon,  any  more  than 
freedom  is;  it  does  not  cure  social  and  political  ills.  It 
must  be  supplemented  by  and  allied  to  the  uplifting,  reno- 
vating, regenerating  power  of  the  Christian  religion." 

In  his  contemplation  of  the  significance  of  educa- 
tion, the  development  of  the  most  highly  cultivated 
intellect,  untouched  and  undirected  by  such  a  code 
of  ethical  conduct  as  is  indicated  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  might  for  him  never  be  *'a  panacea  for 
human  ills."  "Head,  hand  and  heart  should  be  in 
partnership,"  he  declared,  with  insistent  emphasis. 

A  second  fundamental  of  Curry's  educational 
scheme  was  that  public  education  is  a  perpetual 
public  duty.  If,  as  he  said  at  Louisville,  education 
"does  not  cure  social  and  political  ills,"  yet  without 
it  the  social  statics  that  Herbert  Spencer  defines  as 
being  "the  conditions  essential  to  human  happiness" 
may  not  continue  to  exist;  and  in  his  ultimate  judg- 
ment the  duty  which  man  owes  the  State  in  the  mat- 
ter of  education  falls  far  short  of  what  the  State 
owes  man.  "It  is  the  right  of  the  unborn  to  be 
granted  an  intelligent  and  refined  parentage." 

It  is  the  prime  business  and  duty  of  each  generation  to 
educate  the  next.    No  legislation  in  the  United  States  is 


EDUCATIONAL    THEOEIES  413 

more  important  than  that  which  pertains  to  the  universal 
education  of  our  citizens.  .  .  .  The  basis  of  free  insti- 
tutions is  the  intelligence  and  integrity  of  the  citizen. 
.  .  .  In  a  popular  government  an  educated  people  is 
the  best  constitution.  .  .  .  Universal  education,  even 
approximately,  is  impossible  except  through  governmental 
direction  and  public  revenues.  .  .  .  Primarily  it  is 
the  duty  of  local  communities  and  of  States,  by  local  and 
general  taxation,  to  furnish  education  for  all  youth.  The 
education  of  the  children  of  a  State  is  properly  a  burden  on 
property  and  is  the  cheapest  defence  of  the  property  and 
the  lives  of  citizens. 

"The  duty  of  parents  and  churches  must  not  be  ignored 
and  underestimated,"  he  told  the  Georgia  legislature  in 
December,  1888;  "but  the  whole  history  of  the  human  race 
shows  their  insufficiency.  .  .  .  Without  State  system 
and  support,  general  education  is  impossible.  Parental 
and  individual  and  church  efforts  have  never  approximated 
the  needs  of  the  young.  The  common  claim  of  the  ex- 
clusive right  of  parents  to  train  their  children  is  based  on  a 
false  assumption  of  sole  ownership.  Children  belong  to 
community  and  State  as  well  as  to  father  and  mother. 
Society  is  intensely  interested  in  the  well-being,  the  proper 
instruction  of  youth." 

He  preached  this  doctrine  of  the  State's  duty  to 
childhood  in  every  Commonwealth  that  the  Peabody 
Fund  included  in  its  scope,  and  with  such  eflect  as 
to  fasten  the  modern  public  education  theory  upon 
the  minds  of  legislators  as  a  commonplace  of  thought. 
It  was  his  supreme  message  and  he  drove  it  home 
with  unwearied  energy  and  infinite  variety. 

The  patriotism,  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  individual 
citizen  is  the  foundation  upon  which  rests  free  representa- 
tive government.  The  education  and  proper  training  of 
the  voters  who  must  choose  the  public  officers  to  carry  on 


414     J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

the  State's  affairs  is  therefore  a  sacred  duty,  which  cannot 
be  neglected  without  injury  to  the  State  and  to  society. 
Ignorance  is  no  remedy  for  anything. 

This  was  the  message  that  he  bore  to  the  law- 
makers of  South  Carolina  in  1890;  and  in  the  same 
year  he  insisted  to  the  legislature  of  Louisiana  that 
''Universal  education  is  an  imperative  duty." 

While  thus  proclaiming  the  duty  of  government 
to  provide  instruction  for  the  whole  body  of  its 
citizenship,  he  did  not  fail  to  maintain  that  this  pro- 
vision should  be  under  the  sole  control  of  the  State 
or  of  some  local  or  municipal  authority.  He  never 
lost  sight  for  a  moment,  in  his  most  ardent  advocacy 
of  universal  education,  of  that  profound  basis  of 
political  and  economic  philosophy,  upon  which  the 
whole  superstructure  of  his  thought  and  conduct 
was  reared.  He  carried  the  apparently  complex,  and 
yet  ever  simple,  doctrine  of  constitutional  ''strict 
interpretation"  not  only  into  his  life  as  a  statesman, 
but  as  undividedly  into  his  life  as  an  educator. 

"In  our  system  of  co-equal  and  correlated  States,  a  na- 
tional system  of  education  is  undesirable,  as  is  a  national 
University,"  he  declared  in  1883;  "and  the  subordination 
of  State  school  systems  to  Federal  direction  and  control  is 
contrary  to  the  genius  of  our  institutions.  The  separate 
States  are  not  to  be  absorbed,  nor  sunk  into  provincial  de- 
pendencies. We  seek  the  harmonious  blending  of  the  cen- 
trifugal and  centripetal,  liberty  and  union,  local  self-gov- 
ernment and  a  Federal  government,  all  preserved  in 
strength  and  orderly  unity. 

"National  aid  to  State  schools  will  secure  the  benefits 
of  a  national  education." 

It  was  upon  this  philosophic  survey  of  the  educa- 
tional forces,  blending  into  the  harmony  that  springs 


EDUCATIONAL    THEORIES  415 

from  the  inviolate  ''genius  of  our  institutions,"  that 
he  estabhshed  his  support,  with  constant  pen  and 
ready  tongue,  of  the  Blair  Bill. 

He  desired  the  Federal  aid  for  a  cause  which  he 
saw  sorely  needed  pecuniary  help;  but  he  did  not 
anticipate,  as  other  State  Rights  leaders  of  the 
period  anticipated  and  feared,  that  the  grant  of 
Federal  aid  would  prove  the  prelude  to  the  com- 
pulsion of  Federal  control. 

With  all  his  eagerness  to  obtain  the  enlarged 
facilities  which  he  expected  from  the  Blair  Bill,  he 
valued  beyond  any  Federal  aid  to  education  in  the 
South  the  financial  assistance  which  State  after 
State,  under  his  influence  and  that  of  his  coadjutors, 
learned  at  last  to  give  out  of  its  own  strength  and 
of  its  poverty,  and  with  a  generosity  hardly  equalled 
in  the  history  of  public  education  throughout  the 
world.  Writing  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  under  date  of 
September  27,  1894,  about  the  Peabody  Normal 
College  at  Nashville,  he  says: — 

Useful  as  is  the  College,  marvelous  as  has  been  its  suc- 
cess under  its  very  able  President,  it  is  not  a  substitute  for 
our  State  Normals,  and  can  never  do  the  work  of  those  in- 
dispensable local  institutions. 

The  vision  of  a  complete  State  school  system  was 
clear  to  his  mind. 

The  material  value  of  education  was  another  factor 
in  Curry's  general  plan,  which  he  properly  considered 
might  be  appropriately  emphasized  to  a  people  just 
emerging  from  the  poverty  wrought  by  war  and  re- 
construction. That  education  was  an  asset  of 
estimable  value  in  the  life  of  the  individual,  the 
State  and  the  Republic  did  not,  however,  obscure 


416      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

his  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  utiUtarian  ad- 
vantage to  be  derived  from  it  was  only  one  of  many 
advantages. 

''Industrial  success,  productive  industry,  accumu- 
lation of  capital,  remunerative  wages,  national  inde- 
pendence, national  well-being,  cannot  be  separated 
from  general  education,"  he  said  in  his  Louisville 
address,  above  mentioned;  and,  in  1885,  in  a  speech 
before  the  legislature  of  Alabama,  he  re-asserted  the 
proposition  in  another  form: — 

Education  is  the  fundamental  basis  of  general  and  per- 
manent prosperity.  Poverty  is  the  inevitable  result  of 
ignorance.    Capital  follows  the  school-house. 

In  an  address  delivered  in  1888  to  the  legislature 
of  Georgia,  he  made  application  of  the  economic 
principle  as  one  equally  conducive  to  the  develop- 
ment of  good  citizenship,  and  of  patriotism  itself. 

The  lowest  considerations  of  self-interest  demand  the 
competent  support  of  universal  education.  Free  govern- 
ment is  the  outcome  of  diffused  intelligence  and  broad 
patriotism.  An  ignorant  rabble  is  food  for  riots  and  the 
tool  of  demagogues. 

This  proposition,  which  he  dwelt  upon  wherever 
and  whenever  he  spoke  to  the  law-making  bodies 
that  controlled  the  purse-strings  of  the  public 
revenues,  was  nowhere  put  by  him  more  forcibly  or 
with  finer  effect  than  in  a  speech  to  the  legislature 
of  Alabama,  on  December  2,  1896. 

"Looked  at  economically,"  he  said  on  that  occasion,  "it 
is  not  difficult  to  demonstrate  the  money  value  of  educa- 
tion to  individuals  and  society;  and  in  the  very  lowest  util- 
itarian view  which  you  can  take,  education  is  convertible 
into  lands  and  houses  and  taxable  property.    Intelligence 


EDUCATIONAL   THEORIES  417 

is  a  great  money-maker,  and  it  does  not  make  it  either  by 
extortion  or  fraud  or  corruption.  It  is  a  money-maker,  be- 
cause it  creates  products  cheaper  and  better  than  ignor- 
ance ever  did  or  ever  can.  Brute  force  spends  itself  always 
unproductively.  The  highest  principles  of  political  econ- 
omy and  of  social  well-being  demand  the  universal  educa- 
tion of  children  and  the  prevention  of  non-producers 
among  men.  .  .  .  The  true  mint  of  wealth  is  not  at 
Philadelphia  nor  San  Francisco,  but  is  in  the  school- 
house." 

As  a  subsidiary  part  of  his  larger  plan,  his  general 
scheme  included  the  value  of  manual  training  to  the 
developing  child;  and,  in  elucidating  this  branch  of 
his  theory,  he  drew  a  significant  and  notable  dis- 
tinction between  this  "manual  training"  and  the 
peculiar  "industrial  training"  which  has  come  to  be 
used  with  distinguished  efTect  and  marked  advantage 
in  the  education  at  Hampton  and  Tuskegee  of 
Indians  and  negroes. 

"Industrial  training,"  said  Curry  in  a  speech  before  the 
Virginia  legislature  in  the  winter  of  1891-1892,  "is  to  give 
special  training  in  the  mechanic  arts,  to  teach  shoe-mak- 
ing, carpentering,  blacksmithing,  as  a  trade.  Manual 
training,  as  the  term  is  limited,  is  to  give  a  general  train- 
ing, a  dexterity,  to  the  hands,  so  that  they  may  readily 
acquire  skill  in  any  of  the  mechanic  arts.  This  is  an  effec- 
tual educational  process,  bringing  hand,  eye  and  brain  to 
work  together,  developing  harmoniously  all  the  powers  of 
a  human  being." 

"The  most  interesting  and  profitable  changes  that  have 
been  made  in  the  ends  of  modern  education,"  he  told  the 
legislature  of  Georgia,  a  year  or  more  later,  "is  the  incor- 
poration of  manual  training  in  the  curriculum,  so  as  to 
bring  education  into  contact  with  the  pursuits  of  every 
day." 


418      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

As  may  be  inferred  from  the  perusal  of  earlier 
pages  of  this  book,  the  normal  school  stands  out 
boldly  in  Curry's  panorama  of  public  education. 
If  any  one  man  may  be  so  singled  out  and  honored, 
Curry,  by  his  intense  devotion  to  the  idea  of  scien- 
tific teacher-training,  his  personal  interest  in  the 
newly  born  State  normal  schools,  and  his  faith  in 
their  future,  deserves  the  title  of  the  "father  of  the 
Normal  Schools  in  the  South."  It  is  difficult  to 
imagine  the  growth  of  such  powerful  foundations  as 
the  normal  colleges  at  Farmville,  Greensboro,  Rock 
Hill,  Natchitoches,  without  his  fostering  care  and 
quickening  influence.  And  his  conception  of  the 
College  at  Nashville  as  a  great  central  station  of 
teaching  efficiency  and  power  was  an  act  of  pure 
educational  inspiration  ranking  with  the  visions 
that  have  given  immortality  to  the  great  educational 
reformers. 

The  imperative  and  ever  unsatisfied  need  of  trained 
teachers  is  indicated  in  the  organization  and  con- 
duct of  all  successful  public  school  systems;  and  the 
need  of  the  product  illustrates  the  necessity  of  what 
shall  create  that  product.  Public  schools,  without 
normal  schools  and  colleges  to  supply  them  with 
trained  teachers,  would  be  as  antiquated  in  the 
modern  view  of  education,  as  ocean  liners  without 
steam. 

"Teaching  is  a  science,  with  methods  and  principles  and 
laws,"  he  said  at  Blacksburg,  Virginia,  in  1882.  "To  direct 
intellectual  action,  we  must  understand  intellectual  ac- 
tion,— the  true  nature  and  functions  and  capabilities  and 
order  of  development  of  the  mind  we  are  seeking  to  edu- 
cate or  instruct.  Teaching  is  based  on  psychology.  Peda- 
gogy is  psychology  applied  to  teaching.     ...    As  a 


EDUCATIONAL    THEOEIES  419 

necessary  part  of  our  public  school  system,  we  need  normal 
schools  for  training  teachers, — not  annexes,  attachments, 
but  separate  and  distinct  schools. 

"As  essential  to  a  public  school  system,  and  to  the  claim 
of  the  State  to  educate,  are  normal  schools  to  fit  teachers 
for  their  work." 

Other  sayings  of  his,  on  public  occasions,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  uncertain  field  of  legislation,  where  his 
most  important  work  was  often  done,  illustrate  his 
views  of  training  teachers,  and  of  the  need  of  good 
teachers  in  the  schools.  He  said  in  a  circular,  ad- 
dressed to  State  Superintendents  of  Education 
throughout  the  territory  lying  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  his  duties  as  Peabody  Agent: — 

While  practical  results  are  aimed  at,  it  would  be  unfor- 
tunate should  the  instruction  degenerate  into  a  series  of 
drills.  Intelligence  is  the  basis  of  all  skill;  and  appreciation 
of  the  psychological  reasons  for  the  preference  given  to 
any  particular  method  is  regarded  as  essential  to  good 
teachers. 

So  significant  did  he  deem  the  education  of  the 
teacher  who  was  to  educate  the  child,  that  he  was 
insistent  upon  having  rigid  investigation  into  the 
qualifications  of  the  teacher,  before  he  should  be 
allowed  to  come  into  didactic  contact  with  the  mind 
of  the  child. 

"License  to  teach,"  he  said  to  the  Virginia  legislature  in 
February,  1892,  "should  be  given  only  to  those  who  have 
passed  satisfactory  examinations  in  the  branches  to  be 
taught,  in  the  principles,  and  in  the  best  methods  of  teach- 
ing;" and  he  added  with  a  profound  insight  that  epitom- 
ized in  its  expression  the  whole  philosophy  of  school-edu- 
cation: "The  teacher  is  the  school." 


420      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

It  was  a  saying  worthy  of  Arnold  of  Rugby,  or  of 
any  of  the  great  pedagogues,  who  have  illustrated 
in  their  own  lives  and  careers,  as  instructors  of  youth, 
its  essential  verity. 

Perhaps  of  all  the  marks  which, — as  the  hatchet- 
cuts  in  trees,  through  a  theretofore  untraversed 
forest,  point  the  course  of  the  pioneer, — blazon  the 
pathway  of  this  adventurer  through  a  region  where, 
to  many,  his  propaganda  was  scarcely  less  startling 
than  had  been  the  results  of  war  itself,  none  seemed 
more  daring,  or  to  this  day  remains  so  stoutly 
doubted  by  many,  as  his  long  cherished  theory  of 
the  co-education  of  the  sexes.  The  proposition, 
when  first  broached  in  its  less  aggressive  form  of  an 
equal  opportunity  of  education  to  women,  failed  to 
commend  itself  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  a 
society  which  hardly  believed  that  women  needed 
such  education  as  is  fit  for  men, — the  education  that 
enables  its  possessor  to  fight  the  battles  of  life.  And 
while  this  doctrine  of  Curry's,  which  grew  with  him 
finally  into  a  dogma  that  admitted  of  no  contraven- 
tion, came  at  length  to  find  acceptance  with  legislators, 
if  not  with  the  whole  social  organism,  the  co-educa- 
tion theory  is  yet  weighed  in  the  balances  of  uncer- 
tainty and  question  by  the  influences  that  dominate 
the  field  of  his  endeavor. 

''Girls  ought  to  have  equal  advantages  with  boys 
for  higher  education,"  he  shouted  to  his  audience 
at  Blacksburg,  in  1882,  with  a  brusqueness  and  a 
directness  that  knew  no  beating  around  the  bush; 
and  nine  years  later  he  preached  the  same  gospel  to 
the  legislature  of  North  Carolina. 

"Faint  murmurs  of  dissent,"  he  said  in  Raleigh,  in  1891, 
"are  occasionally  whispered  against  the  equal  education, 


EDUCATIONAL   THEORIES  421 

but  the  voice  of  public  justice  is  beginning  to  demand  that 
those  who  are  to  be  wives  and  mothers  shall  not  be  treated 
with  persevering  and  shameful  injustice." 

The  philosophy  of  Plato,  propounding  the  majestic 
question,  ''Is  there  anything  better  in  a  State  than 
that  both  women  and  men  be  rendered  the  very 
best?"  and  answering  it  with  assured  affirmation: 
"There  is  not,"  points  no  way,  of  itself,  how  this 
one  best  thing  is  to  be  accomplished.  But  to  Curry's 
earnest  thought  and  single  mind  the  road  was 
straight  and  narrow,  and  its  sign-post  was  ''Co- 
education." 

"What  has  been  done  for  higher  education  of  young 
women  in  the  United  States  has  not  accorded  with  the 
boasted  respect  and  deference  rendered  to  the  sex,  nor 
with  what  has  been  so  liberally  done  for  young  men," 
he  said  with  a  fine  scorn,  in  an  address  before  the  Win- 
throp  Training  School  on  May  12,  1889.  "Very  few 
institutions  for  taking  young  women  through  advanced 
courses  of  study  have  been  endowed  and  supported  by 
States;  but,"  he  adds,  and  there  is  a  visible  note  of  tri- 
umph in  the  words,  "Co-education  is  fortunately  finding 
increased  adoption  in  colleges  and  universities." 

As  Curry's  phrase,  in  his  letter  to  his  son,  pre- 
viously quoted  in  these  pages,  and  prefixed  to  the 
volume  itself  as  a  sort  of  text,  that  men  should  "live 
in  the  present  and  for  the  future,  leaving  the  dead 
past  to  take  care  of  itself,"  expressed  his  most  in- 
timate spiritual  attitude  toward  life,  so  he  expressed 
his  most  intimate  social  and  political  attitude  toward 
education,  as  an  agent  for  human  betterment  in  the 
saying:— 

The  public  free  schools  are  the  colleges  of  the  people; 
they  are  the  nurseries  of  freedom ;  their  establishment  and 


422      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

efl&ciency  are  the  paramount  duty  of  a  republic.    The  edu- 
cation of  children  is  the  most  legitimate  object  of  taxation. 

His  mind  dwelt  on  education  in  its  social  and 
political  aspects.  He  was  an  educational  statesman 
rather  than  a  scientific  expert  in  pedagogy.  His 
great  aim  was  to  fasten  the  principle  of  popular  edu- 
cation upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  to  inter- 
weave it  into  the  structure  of  the  State,  leaving  to 
later  generations  the  working  out  of  the  principle 
itself  in  larger  scientific  detail.  He  belongs  rather 
with  the  Martin  Luthers,  the  Miltons,  the  Jeffersons, 
the  Matthew  Arnolds,  and  the  Horace  Manns  of  the 
world's  educational  battle,  than  with  the  Sturms, 
the  Pestalozzis,  the  Rousseaus,  the  Frobels,  the 
Herbarts  of  the  unending  struggle.  His  papers  and 
speeches  do  not  compare  with  Horace  Mann's  in 
scientific  thoroughness  and  pedagogic  value.  They 
did  not  need  to  have  these  qualities.  He  stood  on 
Mann's  shoulders  and  faced  another  sort  of  social 
situation;  but  not  Mann  himself  equalled  the  inten- 
sity, the  hard  common  sense,  the  unflagging  passion 
with  which  he  lodged  his  truths  in  the  minds  of  men. 
He  was  not  a  curriculum  maker,  but  a  social  propa- 
gandist. Yet  it  is  interesting  to  see  how  even  the 
details  of  the  great  process  attracted  him;  and  how 
his  mind  played  with  the  psychological  side  of  the 
problem;  and  no  less  interesting  to  observe  how 
acutely  his  thought  took  hold  upon  the  technique  of 
educational  processes,  and  reached  out  after  the 
truth  about  the  needs  of  communities  in  primary, 
industrial  and  agricultural  instruction.  The  whole 
wide  field  opened  itself  to  him;  and  he  had  firm  hold 
of  the  unity  of  education,  and  perceived  all  of  the 
elements  of  educational  work  in  one  comprehensive 


EDUCATIONAL   THEORIES  423 

aggregate,  conducing  to  strengthen  and  advance  the 
life  of  man. 

From  the  substance  of  his  unnumbered  utterances 
on  behalf  of  what  Mr.  Winthrop  called  ''The  Great 
Cause,"  might  be  constructed  and  developed,  what 
Curry  himself  was  always  too  busy  to  construct  and 
develop,  had  he  cared  to  do  so,  a  concrete  total 
system  of  educational  plan  and  scheme,  at  once  as 
synthetic  and  as  reasonable,  though  never  so  original, 
as  Herbert  Spencer's  elaborate  system  of  philosophy. 
But  such  a  scheme,  so  wrought  out,  would  show  little 
that  was  essentially  new.  It  is  in  the  patience  and 
persistence  and  power  of  adaptation  with  which  he 
applied  old  theories  and  practices  to  new  problems, 
under  adventitious  circumstances,  that  his  ability  as 
a  constructive  educator  may  be  said  to  have  lain. 
Over  and  over  and  over  again  he  repeated  his  propo- 
sitions, kindled  with  his  hopes  and  aspirations,  and 
warmed  with  his  eloquence;  until  the  dull  ear  of  his 
audience  awoke  to  listening,  and  he  entered  at  last 
into  its  brain  and  heart.  The  State's  duty  toward 
public  education;  its  moral  and  ethical  significance, 
not  only  for  culture  but  for  the  progress  demanded 
by  modern  life;  the  material  value  of  education; 
the  relative  attitudes  of  State  and  Nation,  under  our 
political  organization,  toward  public  instruction; 
manual  training;  industrial  training;  normal  schools 
and  trained  teachers;  equal  opportunity  of  educa- 
tion for  the  sexes;  co-education  in  colleges  and  higher 
institutions  of  learning — the  absolute  necessity  for 
the  wise  training  of  a  backward  race  of  different 
ethnic  type,  set  down  in  our  society,  in  order  to  pro- 
tect that  society  from  deterioration  and  inefficiency, — 
these  were  his  constant  and  never-forgotten  themes. 


424      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

He  felt  kindly  toward  the  negro,  but  his  largest 
thought  was  for  the  integrity  of  our  whole  life. 
It  was  these  theories  upon  which  he  addressed 
hearkening  legislatures,  and  with  which  he  appealed 
to  society.  Curry  first  appeared  as  a  friend  of  negro 
education  in  the  summer  of  1865,  when  he  presided 
over  a  mass-meeting  in  Marion  which  made  provi- 
sion for  negro  schools.  There  was  practically  no 
objection  by  the  whites,  even  in  the  lower  South,  to 
negro  education,  until  unwise  training  on  the  part 
of  unworthy  teachers,  and  a  foolish  idea  of  the  use 
to  which  education  was  to  be  put  by  the  negroes 
themselves,  began  to  alarm  the  whites.  There  were 
true  missionaries  among  the  Northern  teachers,  but 
there  were  also  rascals  who  took  advantage  of  the 
negro,  fleeced  him  of  his  dollars  and  led  him  to  think 
that  education  meant  immediate  advancement  to 
Congress  or  some  high  public  office.  Soon  the 
Freedman's  Biu-eau  took  a  hand  in  the  matter,  and 
the  great  business  of  education  so  long  directed  as 
an  individualistic  enterprise  by  the  Southern  States 
became  an  affair  of  government,  and  seemed  in  the 
eyes  of  the  blacks  and  whites  to  be  a  sort  of  ''con- 
tinuation of  hostilities  against  the  vanquished." 
The  average  New  England  teacher  approached  the 
task,  however  sincerely,  as  if  the  negro  was  simply 
a  backward  white  man,  an  untaught  ''Mayflower 
descendant."  The  aptitudes,  capabilities  and  social 
needs  of  the  negro  were  disregarded.  The  Southern 
white  teacher  quickly  came  to  avoid  the  work  as  a 
form  of  treason,  because  he  thought  the  prime  puiv 
pose  of  the  whole  educational  scheme  was  to  reverse 
all  social  and  political  conditions.  True  teachers  of 
the  negro  race,  like  General  Armstrong,  and  the  great 


EDUCATIONAL    THEORIES  425 

influences  that  have  proceeded  from  Hampton 
Institute,  like  Booker  Washington  and  a  small  group 
of  thoughtful  negro  leaders  of  the  past  two  decades, 
have  found  their  hardest  task  in  trying  to  undo  what 
was  done  in  those  confused  days,  partly  in  passion 
and  sullen  pride  of  power,  partly  in  ignorance,  partly 
in  haste  by  superficial  zealots,  sometimes,  but  rarely, 
let  us  hope,  in  ugly  hate.  Whatever  the  causes  at 
work,  the  sad  fact  remains  that  the  most  difficult  and 
delicate  social  and  political  problem  of  modern  days 
was  frightfully  bungled,  and  a  wedge  of  iron  driven 
between  the  whites  and  blacks,  making  difficult  for 
generations  any  sort  of  sympathetic  co-operation  in 
a  work  of  racial  adjustment,  calling  for  the  clearest 
and  justest  human  wisdom.  The  highest  claim  of 
J.  L.  M.  Curry  to  the  rank  of  true  statesmanship  is 
that  he  never  lost  his  head  in  this  tangled  matter, 
nor  hardened  his  heart.  There  is  but  one  thing  to 
do  with  a  human  being  in  this  world  and  that  is  to 
give  him  wise  training  for  his  day  and  his  need.  He 
anchored  himself  to  this  principle.  He  did  not  lose 
heart  nor  grow  violent.  While  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  characterize  the  reconstruction  educational  meth- 
ods ''as  a  scheme  to  subject  the  Southern  people  to 
negro  domination  and  to  secure  the  States  per- 
manently for  partisan  ends,"  he  saw  the  sane  thing 
to  do,  and  he  pleaded  for  it  from  that  summer  day  in 
the  little  Alabama  town  three  months  after  Lee's  sol- 
diers had  returned  to  their  ploughing  until  his  death 
in  1903,  when  common  sense  had  begun  to  rule  negro 
education,  when  great  schools  like  Hampton  and 
Tuskegee  had  arisen  as  experiment  stations  to 
propagate  his  ideas  as  well  as  those  of  their  founders, 
and  when  the  Southern  people,  with  an  unexcelled 


426      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

political  patience,  steadiness  of  purpose  and  power 
of  will,  had  removed  the  negro  from  the  shambles 
of  party  strife,  had  set  him  in  the  path  he  should 
have  been  placed  in  thirty  years  before,  and,  in  a 
sense,  had  settled  a  question,  or  a  phase  of  it,  at 
least,  more  baffling  than  any  presented  for  solution 
to  the  men  of  our  race  in  our  time. 


(( - 


1  shall  not  stultify  myself  by  any  fresh  argument  in 
favor  of  negro  education, "he  declared  to  a  legislative  audi- 
ence— a  generation  after  his  first  speech  for  the  negroes  at 
Marion — "but  I  must  be  pardoned  for  emphasizing  the  fact 
that  there  is  greater  need  for  the  education  of  the  other 
race.  The  white  people  are  to  be  the  leaders,  to  take  the 
initiative,  to  have  the  directive  control  in  all  matters  per- 
taining to  civilization  and  the  highest  interests  of  our  be- 
loved land.  History  demonstrates  that  the  Caucasian  will 
rule.  He  ought  to  rule.  He  made  our  Constitution;  he 
achieved  our  independence;  he  is  identified  with  all  the 
true  progress,  all  high  civilization,  and  if  true  to  his  mis- 
sion, while  developing  his  own  capabilities,  he  will  lead 
out  all  other  races  as  far  and  as  fast  as  their  good  and 
their  possibilities  will  justify.  This  white  supremacy  does 
not  mean  hostility  to  the  negro,  but  friendship  for  him. 
On  the  intelligent  and  more  refined  class  of  the  white  peo- 
ple the  negroes  have  been  compelled  to  rely  heretofore  for 
the  educational  advantages  which  they  possess,  and  on 
them  in  the  future  they  must  depend  to  prevent  a  widen- 
ing of  the  breach  between  the  races  and  to  bring  about 
their  higher  advancement.  It  is  hopeless  to  think  of  the 
small  number  of  educated  negroes  protecting  themselves 
against  wrongs  unless  there  be  men  and  women  cultured, 
courageous,  broad  minded  to  correct,  elevate,  and  lead 
public  opinion.  Some  wild  enthusiasts  of  the  negro  race, 
some  purblind  fanatics  of  the  white  race,  may  expect  or 
desire  subordination  or  inferiority  of  the  white  people,  but 
that  is  the  crazy  dream  of  a  kind  of  racial  cosmopolitanism 


EDUCATIONAL    THEORIES  427 

or  fusion  which  portends  loss  of  national  unity  and  is  the 
forerunner  of  decay. 

"  Much  has  been  said — too  much  cannot  be  said — of  the 
negro  problem.  It  does  not '  down '  at  any  man's  bidding. 
It  is  a  living,  ever-present,  all-pervasive,  apparently  irre- 
movable fact.  Its  solution  baffles  statesmanship  and  phil- 
anthropy. Education  —  moral,  intellectual,  industrial, 
civic — should  be  persistently,  generously  furnished,  but, 
if  universal,  is  slow  in  its  results  and  while  immensely 
beneficial  does  not  settle  irreconcilable  racial  antagonisms, 
and  it  leaves  two  heterogeneous,  unassimilable  peoples  as 
coequal  citizens  with  growing  cleavage  in  the  same  terri- 
tory. Preachers,  sociologists,  humanitarians,  with  their 
altruistic  speculations,  may  from  a  safe  distance  pooh- 
pooh  the  problem,  but  there  it  is,  and  there  it  will  re- 
main. 

"Recent  tragic  occurrences  at  the  South  are  not  the 
gravamen  of  the  problem.  They  are  horrifying,  but  are 
incidents.  The  unmentionable  atrocities,  filling  the  timid 
with  direful  apprehensions,  are  committed  by  a  few 
brutes,  who,  slaves  to  appetites,  have  had  their  moral  per- 
ceptions, if  discernible  at  all,  blunted  by  undeveloped  in- 
tellects, low  companionship,  descent  from  depraved  moth- 
ers, fiery  intoxicants,  and  certainly  are  far  below  the  aver- 
age and  have  not  the  sympathy  and  approval  of  their  race. 
It  needs  no  argument  that  the  more  debased,  the  less  self- 
reliant,  the  more  unskilled,  the  more  thriftless,  and  unem- 
ployed the  race  or  any  portion  of  it  is,  the  more  dangerous 
it  will  be,  the  less  desirable  as  inhabitant,  as  laborer,  as 
citizen,  as  voter.  Plato  said  a  man  not  sufficiently  or 
properly  trained  is  the  most  savage  animal  on  earth. 
Nothing  can  be  more  illogical,  more  indefensible,  more  un- 
just, more  cruel,  more  harmful  to  both  races  than  to  hold 
the  negroes  responsible  for  the  outrages  of  a  few  of  their 
race.  Besides,  these  crimes  hardly  enter  into  the  problem, 
which  is  not  one  of  criminology  or  vengeance,  but  exceed- 
ing in  magnitude  and  gravity  any  now  existing  in  a  civ- 


428      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

ilized  country,  and  demanding  the  patience,  wisdom,  states- 
manship, justice,  charity  of  the  best  of  the  land." 

The  capstone  to  his  whole  scheme  was  his  in- 
sistence upon  the  harmonious  co-operation  of  all 
sorts  and  grades  of  schools;  and  its  foundation  was 
his  final  belief  in  the  paramount  importance  of  the 
public  elementary  schools. 

"I  am  a  friend  of  the  University,  my  alma  mater,"  he 
said  to  the  law-makers  of  Georgia, — "of  colleges,  of  the 
theological  schools,  of  high  schools;  and  I  would  do  every- 
thing that  was  reasonable  and  right  for  their  promotion. 
But  if  forced  to  the  alternative  of  choosing  between  them 
and  free  schools  for  the  masses,  the  colleges  of  the  people, 
without  the  slightest  doubt  or  hesitation  I  should  give  my 
voice  and  vote  for  the  latter." 

In  this  statement  Curry,  like  Jefferson,  in  his 
famous  decision  for  a  newspaper  without  a  govern- 
ment, was  startling  his  audiences  into  seeing  his 
point.  He  was  too  clear  visioned  not  to  have  sight 
of  the  unity  of  the  whole  educational  process,  and 
to  know  that  the  great  problem  for  his  successors 
was  to  effect  the  unification  of  the  educational  forces 
of  the  State. 

And  so,  after  all  is  said,  Curry's  philosophy  of 
education  would  seem  to  hark  back  at  most  points 
to  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  whose  views  as  to  the  in- 
struction of  the  citizen  by  the  State  have  been  pre- 
sented upon  an  earlier  page.  But  the  methods  of 
their  propaganda  were  necessarily  different ;  and  the 
earlier  statesman's  ideals  wear  the  stamp  of  a  larger 
originality. 

Jefferson,  the  avatar  of  republican  education  in 
the  South,  living  in  an  aristocratic  age  and  in  the 


EDUCATIONAL    THEORIES  429 

environment  of  a  society  that  had  its  poHtical,  its 
economic  and  its  social  basis  in  the  dominance  by 
the  few  ,of  the  many,  in  his  efforts  to  educate  the 
masses  perceived  with  characteristic  intelligence 
that  he  must  necessarily  elevate  the  citizen  from  the 
eminence  of  the  State  University.  Curry,  on  the 
other  hand,  emerging  from  the  wreck  of  that  earlier 
society,  into  an  atmosphere  where  democracy  was 
becoming  conscious  of  itself  to  the  point  of  triumph, 
saw,  in  his  turn,  that  the  education  of  his  day  and 
generation  must  begin  with  the  common  school, 
and  touching  the  people  everywhere,  lead  them  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher  altitude. 

Thus,  each  of  these  educational  statesmen,  con- 
forming himself  to  the  subtle  and  mysterious  in- 
fluence which  moulds  and  guides  the  centuries, 
wrought  out  his  problem  after  his  fashion,  with 
such  success  as  only  those  encounter  who  work  in 
consonance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  they 
live. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

CONCLUSION 

Out  of  the  richness  and  abundance  of  the  materials 
which  he  left  behind  him,  it  has  been  sought  in  this 
biography  to  have  its  subject  set  forth  himself  and 
his  career  as  much  as  possible  in  his  own  language 
and  fashion,  and  in  those  of  his  friends,  with  such 
comment  only  as  the  narrative  has  seemed  to  re- 
quire, and  such  interpellation  and  relation  of  facts 
as  was  necessary  to  preserve  and  illustrate  the  thread 
of  the  discourse,  and  fix  the  continuity  of  the  story. 
In  this  wealth  of  quotation  from  diaries  and  records 
and  letters  are  very  clearly  to  be  discovered  by  the 
reader,  the  character,  the  capacity,  the  ambitions, 
the  moral  fibre  of  the  man  himself,  no  less  than  the 
translated  history  of  his  life,  his  noble  career  and  his 
lofty  achievements.  There  is  little  need  of  any 
lengthy  summing  up  of  a  case,  whose  incidents  in 
consecutive  significance  have  been  detailed  from  the 
witness-stand  during  its  progress,  with  such  sim- 
plicity and  exactness  as,  at  once,  to  establish  them 
in  the  mind,  and  to  enforce  conviction  of  their  truth. 

And  so,  because  Curry  has  thus  largely  told  his 
own  story  in  this  volume,  it  is  not  deemed  necessary 
to  seek  to  draw  from  it,  when  told,  a  moral  that  is 
obvious,  or  to  endeavor  further  to  adorn  a  tale  that 
is  of  itself  full  of  the  interest  which  must  inevitably 
accompany  any  genuine  "human-document." 

430 


CONCLUSION  431 

His  life  covered  a  period  of  time  in  American 
history  of  such  vital  and  violent  change,  of  such 
spiritual  trial  and  emotional  strain  as  either  to 
confuse  hopelessly  or  to  wreck  the  career  of  many 
strong  men,  but  Curry  held  to  a  true  and  steady 
course. 

In  this  difficult  period  he  served  his  country  and 
society  as  statesman,  soldier,  teacher,  preacher, 
orator,  diplomat  and  educator;  and  by  his  example 
illustrated  perfectly  the  precept  of  the  Apostle, 
''forgetting  those  things  that  are  behind,  and  reach- 
ing to  those  things  which  are  before." 

Yet  his  forgetfulness  was  never  of  elementary 
principles,  or  of  the  significance  of  a  tragic  past. 
Regarding  the  philosophy  of  life  as  lying  in  the  right 
adaptation  of  self  to  circumstances,  and  believing  that 

"To  do 
That  which  before  us  lies  in  daily  life 
Is  the  prime  wisdom," 

he  bent  all  his  energies  to  rehabilitating  the  waste- 
places  of  his  country,  and  to  building  up  a  new 
society  on  the  ruins  of  that  which  had  been  over- 
thrown. He  became  an  American  in  the  broadest 
and  most  catholic  sense  of  the  term,  without  ever 
failing  to  remember  that  he  was  a  Southerner  and 
''an  ex-Confederate";  and  his  loyalty  to  the  flag  of 
a  reunited  country  was  not  tempered  nor  restrained 
by  his  equal  loyalty  to  the  old  creeds  and  the  old 
landmarks,  established  in  the  faith  of  the  fathers. 

In  his  diary  for  1868, — the  third  year  after  the 
close  of  the  War  between  the  States,  he  wrote  this 
translation  from  the  First  Book  of  Thucydides: — 

War,  least  of  all  things,  proceeds  on  definite  principles, 


432      J.  L.  M.  CUERY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

but  adopts  most  of  its  contrivances  from  itself  to  suit  the 
occasion;  in  the  course  of  which,  he  that  deals  with  it  with 
good  temper,  is  more  secure;  while  he  that  engages  in  it 
with  passion,  makes  the  great  failure. 

He  was  a  soldier;  but  he  was  a  statesman  more. 
In  a  letter  written  to  his  son  from  France  in  1886, 
he  said: — 

A  Frenchwoman  asked  Mary  to-day,  what  became  of 
our  Great  Army,  after  the  War  between  the  States.  She 
very  happily  replied,  in  expressive  phrase:  "They  went 
home."  How  our  great  Republic  can  exist  with  a  handful 
of  soldiers — about  25,000  men — is  incomprehensible  to 
Europeans.  Lord  Sahsbury's  remedy  for  Ireland  is  "a 
good  dose  of  drastic  coercion."  His  gospel  is  brute  force, 
his  missionaries  are  the  police  and  the  hangman.  Glad- 
stone's policy  of  justice  and  right  as  the  best  peace-makers, 
is  rejected.  France,  Germany  and  Russia  have  each  their 
million  of  men  under  arms.  Italy,  Austria  and  Spain  must 
have  their  able-bodied  men  all  enrolled  in  their  armies. 
War,  force,  coercion,  are  the  evangel. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  while  Curry,  after  the 
War  between  the  States,  became  conspicuous  among 
Southern  public  men  for  his  Americanism,  it  was 
never  at  the  expense  of  the  individual.  He  abhorred 
paternalism,  and  strove  for  provision  for  general  and 
public  education  to  prepare  each  child  of  the  nation 
for  independent  thinking  and  intelligent  individual 
citizenship.  He  was  not  blinded  by  the  glory  of 
national  prestige  to  the  need  of  national  morals; 
and  while  he  invoked  the  Federal  aid  to  general 
education  because  he  thought  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances demanded  such  aid,  his  most  efficient  educa- 
tional work  was  done  through  the  instrumentalities 
of  States,  cities,  and  communities. 


CONCLUSION  433 

Of  his  character  and  career  as  churchman  and 
Christian,  these  pages  are  already  full.  He  realized 
keenly  the  need  of  fixed  religious  habits  in  the  great 
democracy  of  which  he  was  a  citizen;  and  he  de- 
clared that  "habitual  attendance  on  public  worship 
meets  a  requirement  of  our  moral  nature."  One  of 
his  regrets,  during  his  stay  at  Madrid,  was  that  the 
various  distractions  of  official  life,  as  well  as  the 
uncertain  provisions  for  protestant  worship,  inter- 
fered too  much  with  his  public  devotions.  He  was 
an  apostle  of  religious  liberty,  and  he  was  unre- 
servedly opposed  to  any  union  of  Church  and  State. 
He  did  not  believe  in  ''too  much  machinery"  in 
religious  propaganda;  and  held  with  a  simple  faith 
to  the  efficacy  of  God's  Word.  On  Sunday,  June  3, 
1877,  he  wrote  in  his  journal:  "Read  Colenso  on 
Romans.  Rationalism  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures  is  nearly  as  dangerous  as  skepticism." 

As  an  educator,  he  was  conspicuously  an  agitator. 
Emerging  from  an  antique  and  discarded  educational 
status,  he  entered  upon  the  career  of  a  proselyting 
Peter  the  Hermit,  preaching  a  veritable  crusade  with 
all  the  fiery  vehemence  and  undaunted  courage  of  the 
zealot.  It  is  absolutely  beyond  contradiction  that 
in  this  crusade  he  stood  at  first  almost  alone  among 
his  people;  and  if  the  days  of  a  later  generation  bear 
witness  to  a  wondrous  change  for  the  better,  the 
greater  therefore  should  be  his  honor  and  his  glory. 

Towards  the  end  of  his  life,  he  wrote: — 

In  1853  and  1855  I  was  again  a  representative  from  Tal- 
ladega County  (in  the  Alabama  Legislature);  and  as  a 
member  of  the  Committee  on  Education  sustained  Judge 
Meek's  bill,  which  became  the  first  law  on  the  statute-book 
establishing  public  schools.    In  the  Coosa  River  Associa- 


434      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

tion,  as  a  delegate  to  and  officer  of  that  body  of  Baptist 
Churches,  I  wrote  reports  and  made  speeches  for  educa- 
tion; and  I  may  say,  without  vanity,  that  it  was  through 
my  influence  and  persistent  efforts  that  the  Baptist  Male 
High  School  in  Talladega  was  established,  organized  and 
conducted  until  the  War  between  the  States  closed  it,  as 
it  did  many  other  like  institutions  in  the  South. 

By  a  singular  nemesis,  the  large  brick  building  passed 
into  the  hands  and  control  of  the  American  Missionary 
Association,  who  established  that  excellent  institution,  the 
Talladega  College,  for  the  training  of  negroes.  I  have  sel- 
dom been  more  affected  by  environments  than  when,  some 
years  ago,  I  stood  in  this  building  and  addressed  faculty 
and  students,  and  a  mixed  assembly  of  white  and  colored, 
some  of  the  latter  being  my  former  slaves. 

It  was  an  episode  worthy  of  recordation,  and  as 
significant  in  its  token  of  great  and  irremediable 
change,  as  was  that  indicated  in  the  famous  figure 
of  Macaulay's  essay,  in  which  he  depicts  the  New 
Zealander  of  a  coming  era  contemplating  from  an 
arch  of  London  Bridge  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul's. 

To  Curry's  successful  career  as  a  diplomat  the 
statesmen  of  his  generation  have  borne  disinterested 
witness.  Winthrop,  with  that  generous  tact  and 
friendliness  which  always  seized  the  opportunity  to 
say  the  possible  kindly  word,  or  do  the  possible 
kindly  thing,  wrote  to  him  in  November,  1886: — 

So  many  things  have  happened  of  late  that  I  hardly 
remember  when  I  heard  from  you  last.  But  I  have  heard 
of  you  from  more  than  one  source.  At  our  Harvard  Jubi- 
lee I  sat  between  Bayard  and  Endicott  at  the  table, — next 
but  one  to  President  Cleveland.  Mr.  Bayard  spoke  em- 
phatically of  the  success  of  your  diplomacy,  and  of  your 
having  just  settled  a  delicate  question.  After  that  great 
day  was  over,  and  we  had  taken  one  day  to  rest,  Mrs.  Win- 


CONCLUSION  435 

throp  and  I  ran  on  to  New  York,  and  spent  a  few  days  at 
the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  Who  should  be  there  but  Wm. 
Wirt  Henry.    We  talked  much  about  you  and  Mrs.  Curry. 

Of  Curry's  work  as  an  author  there  is  no  room  to 
speak  here,  beyond  a  record  of  the  fact  that  his 
fecundity  of  literary  production  was  marvellous  in 
the  Hght  of  his  other  work.  In  the  Report  of  the 
American  Historical  Association  for  1897,  Professor 
Thomas  M.  Owen  gives  a  bibliography  of  the  State 
of  Alabama;  and  in  it  is  a  partial  list  of  Curry's 
published  works, — books,  pamphlets,  speeches,  es- 
says, and  the  like.  Among  over  eight  hundred  and 
fifty  authors,  he  stands  first  in  the  number  of  his 
productions,  having  to  his  credit  eighty-two.  These 
are  classified  as  follows:  Books,  about  four;  pam- 
phlets, reports,  etc.,  about  thirty-five;  speeches  and 
addresses,  about  twenty-seven;  articles  in  magazines 
and  newspapers,  about  sixteen.  It  may  be  added 
that  the  total  number  of  his  magazine  and  newspaper 
articles  would  mount  up  into  the  hundreds. 

His  oratory,  in  an  age  and  a  country  of  orators, 
was  unusual  and  compelling.  It  has  been  described 
as  "at  once  calm,  intellectual,  persuasive  and  mag- 
netic." He  had  the  physical  presence,  the  distinc- 
tion of  manner,  the  quality  of  voice  that  win  the 
attention  of  masses  of  men.  In  the  Federal  Con- 
gress he  commanded  and  kept  the  attention  of  the 
House;  before  the  legislatures  of  States,  in  his 
educational  campaigns,  he  spoke  with  the  accom- 
plishment of  results ;  as  a  pulpit-speaker  and  preacher 
he  was  sought  by  dozens  of  city  churches ;  and  upon 
the  hustings  he  ranked  with  the  strongest  political 
debaters  of  his  day. 

In  the  social  relations,  Dr.  Curry  was  a  figure  of 


436      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

unusual  charm  and  graciousness.  His  person  was 
erect,  ample  and  well  proportioned.  His  shock  of 
black  hair,  whitening  with  the  years,  brushed  back 
from  a  broad,  low  forehead,  his  ivory  skin  and  clear 
hazel-gray  eyes  full  of  frankness  and  sympathy, 
prepossessed  the  eye  of  those  who  saw  him  upon  the 
platform  or  in  the  drawing-room.  He  had  the  social 
instincts  of  an  aristocrat,  and  exemplified  in  the  best 
fashion  the  grand  air  of  an  age  now  gone,  which 
greatly  exalted  manners  and  bred  a  quality  of  be- 
havior that  seems  archaic  and  overwrought  in  our 
directer  era,  but  which  was,  in  reality,  very  beautiful 
and  distinguished,  and  by  its  passing  has  somehow 
robbed  life  of  something  that  made  for  the  lessening 
of  vulgarity.  His  demeanor,  like  that  of  so  many  of  his 
contemporaries,  was  a  wonderful  mingling  of  dignity 
and  condescension,  of  gaiety  and  reserve,  of  intense 
self-consciousness  without  a  suggestion  of  selfishness. 
Life  and  living  were  for  him  serious,  beautiful, 
reverential  things.  He  esteemed  himself  highly  and 
he  lived  rigidly  up  to  the  standard  he  demanded  of 
himself.  The  age  of  chivalry  had  not  gone  for 
him  in  his  attitude  towards  women,  for  he  had  been 
singularly  blessed  in  his  relations  with  womanhood; 
nor  the  age  of  romance  in  his  feeling  for  childhood 
and  youth.  He  loved  good  talk  and  pleasant  people, 
a  good  table  and  the  good  things  the  flesh  of 
man  craves,  including  a  good  story.  With  a  varied 
human  experience  enriched  by  wide  travel  there 
were  few  themes  upon  which  he  could  not  discourse 
interestingly.  He  could  hsten  charmingly  enough, 
but  bore  with  ill-concealed  impatience  any  lack  of 
attention  to  his  own  speech,  and  distinctly  did  not 
belong  to  the  class  of  talkers  who  make  of  the  noble 


CONCLUSION  437 

art  of  conversation  a  series  of  sallies  and  silences. 
Macaulay  and  Dr.  Johnson  were  more  after  his  heart 
than  the  polished  epigrams  of  the  great  French 
talkers.  He  loved  the  approval  of  his  fellows  and 
was  almost  naive  in  his  desire  for  applause  and  in  the 
exhilaration  and  increase  of  power  the  applause  gave 
him.  Though  bold  and  courageous  in  his  opinions, 
he  was  unhappy  if  he  was  out  of  sympathy  with  his 
environments,  and  the  master  craving  of  his  heart 
was  for  adaptability  to  his  time.  He  could  be  a 
little  overpowering  at  times  in  his  suggestion  of 
self-confidence  and  easy  strength,  and  in  a  certain 
distaste  for  opposition,  but  never  to  the  point  of 
offense;  and  behind  his  high  bearing,  and  sometimes 
imperious  ways,  lurked  quick  tears  of  sympathy  and 
swift  impulses  of  gentleness  and  helpfulness  to  every 
living  thing.  His  attitude  towards  the  negro  race 
was  particularly  fine.  He  was  their  true  friend. 
His  was  perhaps  the  first  voice  to  declare  that  there 
was  no  place  for  a  helot  in  our  system  and  that  the 
negro  must  be  trained  properly  for  life  in  this  nation. 
He  was  among  the  first  to  urge  common  sense  in  the 
form  of  industrial  education  as  against  sentimental- 
ity in  the  education  of  the  negro.  He  denounced 
vehemently  the  proposition  to  divide  taxes  for 
educational  purposes,  on  the  basis  of  race.  Person- 
ally he  moved  among  them  in  his  ministrations  as 
one  fancies  Lee  might  have  done,  treating  them  in 
their  new  status  exactly  as  he  would  have  treated 
them  in  their  old,  unconscious  of  them  socially,  free 
of  fear  of  them  in  his  nerves,  wanting  to  help  them 
for  their  own  sake,  thinking  of  them  kindly,  but 
thinking  more  profoundly  of  American  life  as  affected 
by  their  presence. 


438      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

There  was  no  doubt  in  his  mind  of  the  necessity 
for  the  continued  rule  of  intelhgence  and  the  direc- 
tion of  public  affairs  by  the  wisdom  of  the  white  race, 
but  he  also  felt  deeply  that  the  strong  must  use 
justice  always  or  cease  to  be  the  strong.  He  believed 
in  the  theory  of  social  separateness  as  necessary  to 
the  integrity  of  the  white  race,  and  equally  necessary 
to  the  development  of  any  true  racial  pride  or  racial 
consciousness  in  the  negro  race. 

The  writer  of  this  paragraph  saw  Curry  for  the 
first  time,  in  1883.  It  was  his  fortune  as  a  young 
man  in  his  first  speech  in  public,  to  introduce  the 
famous  speaker  to  an  audience  in  a  thriving  little 
Southern  town.  The  speech,  a  passionate  plea  for 
education,  made  a  lasting  impression  as  did  the  man 
himself,  in  manner,  presence,  dress,  demeanor.  Men 
of  such  power  did  not  ordinarily  spend  themselves 
in  such  a  cause — and  the  cause  itself  suddenly  loomed 
up  in  its  right  proportions.  It  was  a  great  coinci- 
dence that  such  a  cause  found  at  just  the  right  time 
such  a  man  to  incarnate  its  dignity  and  draw  dis- 
ciples to  its  service. 

It  was  interesting  to  observe  how  much  he  enjoyed 
the  exercise  of  his  oratorical  power,  and  if  his  audi- 
ence responded  there  was  imparted  to  him  a  mount- 
ing enthusiasm  that  so  expressed  itself  in  tone  and 
gesture  and  manner  as  to  move  strongly  any  body 
of  men.  It  was  old-fashioned  oratory  to  be  sure, 
differing  widely  from  the  manner  of  severe  clear 
statement  into  which  our  speaking  habit  is  drifting 
with  good  results  on  the  whole,  but  it  was  interesting 
to  note  how  people  woke  up  under  it  and  felt  its 
power  and  went  away  moved  to  action  by  reason  of 
it.    There  was  a  singular   difference  between  his 


CONCLUSION  439 

written  speeches  and  those  deUvered  extempora- 
neously. In  the  former  appear  a  certain  stateUness, 
restraint  and  great  sobriety  of  diction  and  figure. 
In  the  latter  he  gave  himself  full  rein,  acted  the  part 
and  uttered  himself  in  flowing  and  picturesque 
rhetoric.  Like  Gladstone,  what  he  received  from 
the  audience  as  vapor,  he  returned  to  them  as  rain. 
To  the  man  himself,  the  very  soul  and  heart  of 
him,  no  higher  tribute  can  be  paid  than  that  which 
is  contained  in  a  letter  written  to  him  in  1892,  by 
his  wife's  mother,  in  which  she  said : — 

Twenty-five  years  to-day  since  you  entered  my  family  as 
my  son, — and  such  a  son, — one  of  whom  I've  always  felt 
proud  and  thankful.  Twenty-five  years  of  love  and  kind- 
ness to  me,  during  which  time  I've  never  had  occasion  to 
think  or  speak  an  unkind  word  or  thought  of  you.  May 
the  Good  Lord,  who  has  followed  you  both  with  his  richest 
blessings,  continue  to  bless  you  with  a  long  life  of  useful- 
ness and  continued  love  and  prosperity,  is  the  sincere 
prayer  of  the  mother  who  loves  you. 

It  was  a  prayer  that  was  answered  in  abundance; 
and  if  man  may  be  the  judge  of  divine  dispensation, 
rightly  answered.  For,  beyond  intellect,  and  in- 
dustry, and  perseverance,  and  adaptability,  and 
courage,  and  faith,  of  which  he  possessed  an  un- 
wonted share  in  all,  stands  and  persists  the  great 
composite  of  these  things,  and  of  yet  others  of  which 
it  is  made, — the  indefinable  force  called  character. 

It  was  this  vital  force  of  character,  that  enabled 
him,  as  he  did,  to  turn  his  face  to  the  sunrise  of  a 
new  day  after  the  great  sunsetting  of  the  War,  yet 
with  an  ever  unfaltering  loyalty  to  the  watches  of 
that  ended  night. 

"Crushed,  subjugated,  impoverished  we  were  by  the 


440      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

War,"  he  wrote  to  his  son,  twenty-one  years  after  Appo- 
mattox,— "  insulted,  tyrannized  over,  outraged  by  Recon- 
struction Acts;  but  of  what  avail  is  it  to  keep  alive  passion, 
and  cherish  hatred?  Of  the  abstract  right  of  a  State,  in 
1860,  to  secede,  under  our  then  form  of  government,  I 
have  not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  But  no  conquered  people 
ever  wrote  the  accepted  history  of  the  conquest.  To  go 
about  shaking  our  fists  and  grinding  our  teeth  at  the  con- 
querors, dragging  as  a  heavy  weight  the  dead  corpse  of  the 
Confederacy,  is  stupid  and  daily  suicidal.  Let  us  live  in 
the  present  and  for  the  future,  leaving  the  dead  Past  to 
take  care  of  itself,  drawing  only  profitable  lessons  from 
that  and  all  history." 

With  this  feeling  of  hopefulness  and  purpose,  yet 
without  recantation  of  any  principle,  he  gave  him- 
self to  the  great  work  of  his  life, — the  cause  of 
Education  in  the  South;  and  in  his  story  of  building 
up  the  waste-places,  he  set  always  the  Peabody 
Fund  in  the  forefront.  Of  it  he  once  wrote,  with 
poignant  feeling  and  unequivocal  assertion,  that  it 
had  ''been  a  most  potent  agency  in  creating  and  pre- 
serving a  bond  of  peace  and  unity  and  fraternity 
between  the  North  and  the  South.  It  initiated  an 
era  of  good  feeling;  for  the  gift,  as  said  by  Mr. 
Winthrop,  'was  the  earliest  manifestation  of  a 
spirit  of  reconciliation  toward  those  from  whom  we 
had  been  so  unhappily  alienated,  and  against  whom 
we  of  the  North  had  been  so  recently  arrayed  in 
arms.'  No  instrumentality  has  been  so  effective  in 
the  South  in  promoting  concord,  in  restoring  fellow- 
ship, in  cultivating  a  broad  and  generous  patriotism, 
and  apart  from  its  direct  connection  with  schools, 
it  has  been  an  unspeakable  blessing  in  cementing 
the  bonds  of  a  lately  dissevered  Union." 


CONCLUSION  441 

Of  the  man  and  his  work  the  Trustees  of  the  Pea- 
body  Fund  have  left  a  just,  if  glowing  estimate 
in  the  memorial  minute  adopted  at  their  meet- 
ing, held  in  the  City  of  New  York,  October  8, 
1903.  There  were  present  at  that  meeting  Chief 
Justice  Fuller,  the  Chairman,  and  Messrs.  Samuel 
A.  Green,  James  B.  Porter,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan, 
Wilham  A.  Courtenay,  Henderson  M.  Somerville, 
Charles  E.  Fenner,  Daniel  C.  Oilman,  George  F. 
Hoar,  Hoke  Smith,  WiUiam  C.  Doane  and  Morris 
K.  Jesup. 

The  Chairman  announced  the  recent  death  of  Dr. 
Curry,  the  General  Agent  of  the  Board;  and  upon 
request  Dr.  Oilman  presented  a  memorial  paper 
which,  on  motion  of  Judge  Fenner,  was  made  by  the 
Trustees  an  expression  of  their  sense  of  the  services 
rendered  by  him,  and  of  their  loss  and  that  of  the 
country  in  his  death.  This  paper,  adopted  by  a 
rising  vote  of  the  distinguished  body,  was  as  fol- 
lows : — 

The  Trustees  of  the  Peabody  Education  Fund  grate- 
fully record  their  appreciation  of  the  services  of  Hon.  J.  L. 
M.  Curry,  LL.D.,  as  General  Agent  of  the  Fund. 

On  the  death  of  Dr.  Barnas  Sears,  the  wise  originator  of 
the  methods  adopted  by  this  Board  under  Mr.  Winthrop's 
guidance,  Doctor  Curry,  in  1881,  was  unanimously  ap- 
pointed his  successor.  He  had  already  acquired  distinc- 
tion as  a  soldier,  a  legislator,  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and 
a  college-president,  and  his  acquaintance  with  the  leaders 
of  public  opinion  and  wath  the  educational  conditions  of 
the  Southern  States,  enabled  him  to  enter  upon  the  ad- 
ministrative responsibilities  to  which  he  was  called  with 
every  assurance  of  success.  These  expectations  were  com- 
pletely sustained.  A  few  years  later,  at  the  suggestion  of 
President  Hayes,  who  was  a  member  of  the  two  boards, 


442      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

Doctor  Curry  was  made  the  executive  officer  of  the  Slater 
Fund  as  well  as  of  the  Peabody,  and  in  this  double  capacity 
he  travelled  widely  and  constantly  in  the  South,  visited 
colleges,  normal  schools,  industrial  schools,  and  common 
schools,  attended  educational  conventions,  and  addressed 
not  infrequently,  and  at  their  request,  both  houses  of  the 
legislature  in  many,  if  not  all  of  the  Southern  States,  He 
was  also  called  upon  in  the  Northern  States  to  discuss 
those  phases  of  education  with  which  he  was  familiar. 

Few  of  his  contemporaries  can  be  compared  with  Doc- 
tor Curry  as  an  orator,  so  that  it  is  doubtless  due  to  him, 
in  a  large  degree,  that  the  present  awakening  of  the  South 
to  the  importance  of  public  provision  for  education  should 
be  attributed.  He  was  keenly  alive  to  the  responsibilities 
of  his  position,  unwearied  by  the  long  journeys  which  they 
involved,  conscious  of  radical  differences  of  opinion  among 
those  whom  he  met,  and  undismayed  by  perplexities.  His 
enthusiasm  for  education,  his  consideration  for  others,  and 
his  sincere  desire  to  promote  the  welfare  of  all  the  people, 
enabled  him  to  exert  a  profound  and  serviceable  influence, 
which  will  never  be  forgotten. 

Twice  during  his  connection  with  this  Board  he  was 
appointed  by  different  administrations  to  represent  the 
United  States  at  the  Spanish  Court.  With  these  excep- 
tions his  services  were  uninterrupted  until  a  few  months 
before  his  death,  when  his  physical  powers  gave  way. 
The  Board  provided  for  his  relief  from  such  duties  as  he 
was  willing  to  throw  off,  yet  his  vigor  had  departed  never 
to  return.  He  was  unable  to  attend  the  special  meeting  of 
the  Board  in  January  last,  and  he  died  near  Asheville,  N. 
C,  February  12,  1903,  in  his  seventy-eighth  year.  He  was 
buried  in  Richmond,  and  at  the  funeral  his  colleagues  in 
this  Board  were  represented  by  the  treasurer,  Mr.  J.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan.  Mrs.  Curry,  who  was  then  a  great  invalid, 
died  a  few  weeks  later. 

It  is  not  easy  to  sum  up  in  a  few  sentences  the  character- 
istics of  this  remarkable  man.    His  versatility  is  shown  by 


o 

Q 

O 
H 
O 

K 
< 

►J 
< 

a 

Ci 
H 
< 
H 
W 


PA 
« 

O 

b 
O 

o 


CONCLUSION  443 

the  various  positions  to  which  he  was  called — the  bar,  the 
ministry,  the  legislature,  the  army,  the  Congress  of  the 
Confederate  States,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  the 
professorship  of  law,  the  administration  of  two  educational 
trusts,  the  mission  to  Spain.  It  was  twenty  years  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  when  he  entered  upon  his  task 
as  a  promoter  of  peace  and  union  by  the  agency  of  educa- 
tion; and  during  the  twenty-two  years  that  still  remained 
to  him  of  life,  his  other  distinctions ,  if  they  did  not  vanish, 
were  quite  subordinate  to  that  which  came  from  his  con- 
nection with  this  Fund.  As  an  adviser  to  the  Trustees,  as 
the  official  visitor  to  the  schools  which  were  aided  by  the 
Board,  as  the  authorized  exponent  and  advocate  of  gen- 
eral education,  as  the  eloquent  and  forcible  speaker  upon 
the  public  platform,  he  won  the  admiration  and  respect  of 
his  associates  and  colleagues.  Other  leaders  will  un- 
doubtedly come  forward,  but  the  managers  of  this  Trust 
will  never  fail  to  associate  the  names  of  Sears  and  Curry 
with  those  of  Peabody  and  Winthrop.  To  these  four  men 
perpetual  gratitude  is  due. 

To  justly  appreciate  the  character  of  Curry,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  he  had  not  reached  his 
prime  when  our  great  national  drama,  fate  deter- 
mined and  fate  driven,  had  passed  from  argument 
into  war,  and  he,  himself,  caught  in  the  grip  of  that 
same  fate,  with  all  his  gentleness  and  tenderness, 
became  of  those  whose  ''faith  and  truth  on  war's 
red  touchstone  rang  true  metal."  In  the  strength 
of  middle  life  and  in  the  serene  wisdom  of  old  age, 
this  fortunate  man  found  himself  living  in  another 
world,  and  with  sufficient  strength  of  heart,  which 
is  courage,  to  live  in  it  and  of  it  and  for  it,  with  a 
spirit  unspoiled  by  hate  or  bitter  memories,  with  a 
heart  unfretted  by  regrets  and  with  a  purpose  un- 
shaken by  any  doubt.     A  great  soul  is  needed  to 


444      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

pass  from  one  era  to  another  in  such  fashion  as  this. 
The  strand  of  every  revolutionary  epoch  is  lined 
with  wrecks  of  pure  and  lovable  men  who  had  not 
the  faith  and  courage  to  will  to  live  and  serve  another 
time.  Dr.  Curry  possessed  this  quality  of  courage 
in  high  degree.  Indeed,  for  the  first  time  he  had 
sight  of  the  possibility  of  an  undivided  country,  rid 
of  sectionalism  and  provincialism  and  hindering 
custom  and  tradition,  conscious  of  its  destiny,  as- 
sured of  its  nationality,  striving  to  fit  itself  for  the 
work  of  a  great  nation  in  civilization.  He  had 
sight,  too,  of  his  own  section,  idealized,  to  him,  by 
fortitude  and  woe,  adjusting  itself  in  dignity  and 
suffering  and  power  to  the  spirit  of  the  modern 
world.  What  is  there  for  a  strong  man  to  do? — 
we  may  fancy  himself  asking  himself  in  the  silence 
of  his  soul.  There  could  be  no  bickerings  for  such 
men  as  him,  no  using  of  his  great  powers  to  find  place 
for  himself  by  nursing  the  feeling  of  hatred  and 
revenge  in  the  breasts  of  proud  and  passionate  races. 
There  could  be  no  crude,  racial  scorn,  no  theatrical 
pettiness,  no  vain,  fatuous  blindness,  or  puerile 
obstinacy.  ''Not  painlessly  had  God  remoulded 
and  cast  anew  the  nation."  The  pain  had  indeed 
smitten  his  soul,  but  his  eyes  were  clear  enough  to 
see  God's  great  hand  in  the  movements  of  society 
and  to  realize  the  glory  of  new-birth  out  of  pain, 
and  his  desire  was  quickly  aflame  to  be  about  the 
work  that  re-creates  and  sets  in  order.  Like  all 
sincere,  unselfish  men  to  whom  life  means  helpful- 
ness, he  saw  his  task  lying  before  him — like  a  sunlit 
road  stretching  straight  before  the  traveler's  feet. 
He  was  to  walk  in  that  path  for  all  his  remaining 
days.     The  quality  of  his  mind,  the  sum  of  his  gifts 


CONCLUSION  445 

and  graces,  the  ideals  of  contemporary  civilization 
suggested  political  preferment,  but  no  consideration 
of  self  or  fortune  could  swerve  him  from  his  course. 
There  dwelt  in  him  a  leonine  quality  of  combat  and 
struggle,  a  delight  of  contest,  a  rising  of  all  his  powers 
to  opposition  that  had  only  one  master  in  his  soul, 
and  that  master  was  the  Christian  instinct  for  ser- 
vice. He  was  once  heard  to  declare  to  a  great  audi- 
ence that  it  was  the  proudest  duty  of  the  South  to 
accomplish  the  education  of  every  child  in  its  bor- 
ders— high  or  low,  bond  or  free,  black  or  white. 
The  only  response  to  his  appeal  was  silence.  He 
shouted,  ''I  will  make  you  applaud  that  sentiment." 
With  strident  voice  and  shaking  of  the  head,  after 
the  manner  of  the  oratory  of  the  olden  time,  he 
pleaded  for  human  freedom.  He  pictured  to  his  audi- 
ence the  ruin  that  may  be  wrought  by  hate,  and  the 
beauty  of  justice  and  sympathy  until  he  awakened 
in  them  the  god  of  justice  and  gentleness  that  lies 
sleeping  in  the  human  heart,  and  the  applause  rolled 
up  to  him  in  a  storm. 

Over  at  Lexington,  by  the  quiet  flowing  river,  and 
the  simple  hills,  Robert  E.  Lee  saw  the  same  vision, 
because  there  dwelt  in  him,  too,  the  same  simplicity, 
sincerity  and  unselfishness.  The  philosophic  stu- 
dent of  our  national  story  will  one  day  appraise  and 
relate  how  much'  it  meant  to  that  story  that  the 
vision  of  Lee  was  not  disturbed  nor  distorted  by 
dreams  or  fancies  that  in  all  ages  have  beset  the 
brain  of  the  hero  of  the  people.  This  quiet  man  at 
Lexington  had  led  mighty  armies  to  victory,  and  had 
looked  defeat  and  ruin  in  the  face  with  epic  fortitude. 
He  had  stood  the  supreme  figure  amid  the  fierce  joys 
and  shoutings  of  a  mighty  day.     His  name  rang 


446      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

around  the  world  foremost  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
heroes  of  the  English  race;  but  the  vision  that  ap- 
peared to  Lee,  the  conqueror  and  warrior,  was  the 
same  that  appeared  to  Curry,  the  scholar  and  stu- 
dent and  orator.  It  was  a  vision  of  many  millions 
of  childhood  standing  impoverished  and  untaught 
amid  new  duties,  new  occasions,  new  needs,  new 
worlds  of  endeavor,  appealing  with  outstretched 
hands  to  the  grown-up  strength  of  their  generation, 
to  know  why  they  should  not  have  a  country  to  love, 
an  age  to  serve,  a  work  to  do,  and  a  training  for  that 
work.  Alien  to  this  new  generation  were  the  sub- 
tleties of  divided  sovereignty,  or  the  responsibility 
for  the  presence  of  the  African  in  our  life,  and  strange 
to  their  eyes  and  ears  the  fading  fires  and  retreating 
noises  of  battle  and  of  war.  The  vision  was  life — 
unconquered,  tumultuous,  beautiful,  wholesome,  re- 
generative young  life — asking  a  chance  of  its  elders 
to  live  worthily  in  its  world  and  time.  The  elders 
had  had  their  day,  and  had  ha^i  acquaintance  with 
achievement  and  sadness  and  defeat,  but  here  stood 
undefeated  youth,  coming  on  as  comes  on  a  fresh 
wave  of  the  sea,  with  sunlight  in  its  crest,  to  take  the 
place  of  its  fellow  just  dashed  against  the  shore. 
"Life  is  greater  than  any  theory!  We  ask  the  right 
to  live!"  said  this  vision. 

Lee  and  Curry  saw  this  vision,  and  thousands  of 
like  souls  followed  their  leading  and  found  their  tasks 
and  were  happy  with  their  work  lying  before  them 
and  their  hearts  asking  no  other  blessedness.  Let  all 
Americans  be  grateful  to  the  God  of  nations  that  He 
had  us  enough  in  His  care  to  choose  for  us  such  lead- 
ers as  these,  ''whose  strength  was  as  the  strength 
of  ten,  because  their  hearts  were  pure."     Lee  gave 


CONCLUSION  447 

his  great  example  and  a  few  years  of  noble  service  to 
the  nation,  and  passed,  like  Arthur,  "while  the  new 
sun  arose  upon  a  new  day."  A  happier  fortune  be- 
fell Curry.  There  was  left  to  him  over  two  decades 
of  time  in  which  to  strive  for  the  realization  of  his 
dreams  and  the  fulfillment  of  his  plans. 

Our  democracy,  with  its  amazing  record  of 
achievement  in  the  subduing  of  the  continent,  has 
nothing  finer  to  show  than  the  example  of  these  two 
men  in  a  time  of  great  passion  and  headiness,  save 
perhaps  the  example  of  another  American.  Away 
off  in  Massachusetts — that  great  commonwealth 
from  which  the  nation  has  learned  so  much  of  order 
and  moral  persistence — a  private  citizen — George 
Peabody — was  bethinking  himself  of  his  country, 
bleeding  from  the  red  stripes  of  the  Civil  War,  and 
wondering  what  he  could  do  to  heal  its  wounds.  It 
is  just  to  hail  him  as  the  pioneer  of  that  splendid 
army  of  '^  volunteer  statesmen"  of  whom  our  democ- 
racy can  boast,  who  do  not  hesitate  to  undertake 
any  work  for  their  country's  good.  It  did  not  matter 
to  him  that  the  States  of  the  South  had  stood  to  him 
for  four  years  as  the  enemy's  country.  What  he  saw 
was  youth,  which  the  nation  needed  for  its  health, 
springing  up  untrained  and  sorely  burdened — the 
sons  of  brave  men,  men  who  knew  how  to  die  for  an 
idea,  and  who  did  not  know  how  to  compromise. 
What  he  did  was  to  rise  clearly  above  all  small  pas- 
sions and  to  pour  his  great  fortune  into  those  stricken 
states  for  the  benefit  alike  of  the  former  master  and 
of  him  who  had  been  a  slave.  Lee,  Peabody,  Curry! 
We  will  do  well  never  to  tire  of  mentioning  their 
names!  An  industrial  democracy,  threatened  con- 
stantly with  vulgarity  and  coarse  strength,  will  have 


448      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

increasing  need  of  the  example  of  their  noble  calm- 
ness and  patient  idealism. 

,  The  task  that  confronted  Curry,  in  its  larger  lines, 
was  to  democratize  the  point  of  view  of  an  aristo- 
cratic society,  to  renationalize  its  impulses  and  as- 
pirations, to  preach  the  gospel  of  national  unity  to 
both  sections,  to  stimulate  the  habit  of  community 
effort  for  public  ends,  to  enrich  the  concept  of  civic 
virtue,  to  exemplify  the  ideal  of  social  service  to 
young  men,  and  to  set  the  public  school,  in  its  proper 
correlation  to  all  other  educational  agencies,  in  the 
front  of  the  public  mind,  as  a  chief  concern  of  con- 
structive statesmanship.  His  task,  in  its  more  tech- 
nical aspects,  was  to  reveal  the  public  school  as  it 
should  be,  actually  at  work  in  a  democratic  society, 
with  all  of  its  necessities — trained  and  cultured 
teachers,  varied  curricula  appealing  to  hand  and  eye 
and  mind,  industrial  training,  beautiful  surround- 
ings, nourished  by  public  pride  and  strengthened  by 
public  confidence.  The  first  ten  years  of  his  work 
were  years  of  battle  for  the  development  of  public 
opinion;  and  it  was  to  be  a  great  struggle,  for  many 
heresies  were  afield.  He  was  told  by  those  who  sat 
in  high  places  that  public  schools  were  godless,  and 
that  the  State  had  no  right  to  tax  one  man  to  edu- 
cate another  man's  child;  that  it  was  dangerous  to 
educate  the  masses,  and  that  the  educated  negro  or 
poor  white  meant  a  spoiled  laborer,  and  many  other 
musty  things  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  conscientious 
doctrinaire.  His  reply  to  all  this  was:  "Ignorance  is 
no  remedy  for  anything.  If  the  state  has  a  right  to 
live  at  all,  it  has  a  right  to  educate.  Education  is 
a  great  national  investment." 

And  so,  that  solemn,  majestic  thing,  called  public 


CONCLUSION  449 

opinion,  got  born,  and  a  few  men  as  earnest  as  death 
became  somehow  what  we  call  a  movement,  and  the 
movement,  led  by  this  splendid  figm'e,  wherein  was 
blended  the  grace  and  charm  of  the  old  time  with 
the  vigor  and  freedom  of  the  new,  became,  as  has 
been  said,  a  new  crusade,  and  young  scholars  had 
their  imaginations  touched  by  it  and  their  creative 
instincts  awakened  by  it,  and  the  preachers  saw 
their  way  clear  to  push  it  along,  and  the  politicians, 
ever  sensitive  to  the  lightest  wind  of  popular  desire, 
felt  its  stirrings  in  the  air.  Above  it  all,  and  ener- 
gizing it  all,  stood  this  strong,  gifted,  earnest  man, 
to  whom  was  granted  the  ultimate  felicity  of  behold- 
ing that  supremest  good  of  life,  a  creative  work 
well  done  and  bearing  fruit. 

In  every  one  of  the  Southern  States  to-day  there 
is  a  public  system  of  schools  growing  yearly  more 
complete  upon  which  the  South  as  a  whole  is  expend- 
ing something  over  forty  per  cent  of  all  its  public 
revenues.  To  bring  this  to  pass,  a  war-stricken 
region  has  expended  vast  sums  of  money  and  organ- 
ized education  on  a  comprehensive  and  logical  basis. 
When  Curry  undertook  his  mission  in  1881  the  total 
school  revenue  of  the  South  amounted  to  six  millions 
of  dollars.  In  the  year  1910  the  expenditure  will 
approximate  thirty-eight  millions.  Normal  and  in- 
dustrial schools  for  both  races,  sustained  by  general 
and  local  taxation,  exist  in  every  state.  Thirty 
great  institutions  of  higher  learning  have  been  re- 
vived and  established.  The  proportion  of  Southern 
boys  studying  technological  subjects  has  increased 
tenfold  since  1873.  Practically  all  cities  and  towns 
of  three  thousand  population  maintain  a  school 
system  from  which  boys  and  girls  may  pass  into 


450      J.  L.  M.  CURRY,  A  BIOGRAPHY 

college.  Agriculture  as  a  science,  intensive  and 
skilful  tilling  of  the  soil,  and  the  elevation  of  rural 
life  have  become  the  program  of  practical  statesman- 
ship. And  greater  than  all  these  details,  a  generous 
and  triumphant  public  sentiment  has  been  aroused 
that  will  make  these  performances  seem  feeble  in 
another  decade. 

The  chief  work  then  of  this  noble  life,  if  such  a 
life  can  be  thus  summed  up,  was  to  develop  an  irre- 
sistible public  opinion  in  a  democracy  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  permanent  public  ends.  Through  such 
work  as  his,  in  one  generation  of  grim  purpose  and 
intellectual  audacity,  the  South  has  lost  its  economic 
distinctness  and  has  become  a  part  of  American  Ufe 
and  American  destiny.  Men  may  forget  the  oratory, 
the  diplomacy,  the  intellectual  vigor,  the  gracious, 
compelling  charm  of  Curry  the  man,  but  they  will 
not  forget  the  zeal,  the  self-surrender  of  Curry  the 
social  reformer  and  civic  patriot;  and  when  the 
final  roll  shall  be  called  of  the  great  sons  of  the 
South,  and  of  the  nation,  who  served  society  well 
when  service  was  most  needed,  it  may  well  be  be- 
lieved that  no  answer  will  ring  out  clearer  and  higher 
and  sweeter  in  that  larger  air  than  the  "Adsum''  of 
J.  L.  M.  Curry.  It  speaks  well  for  the  farsighted- 
ness and  wisdom  of  the  State  of  Alabama,  for  whose 
land  and  people  he  retained  a  tender  loyalty,  and 
whose  citizenship  he  adorned,  that  that  great  com- 
monwealth has  placed  in  one  of  the  niches  reserved 
for  it  in  the  national  capitol  a  marble  statue  of  this  son 
of  hers  containing  this  brief  summary  of  his  life  and 
career, — "Educator,  orator,  diplomat,  patriot."  The 
fine  discrimination  of  the  act  of  Alabama  in  thus 
nobly  perpetuating  the    memory  of  Curry  lies  not 


CONCLUSION  451 

so  much  in  the  recognition  of  his  varied  general 
pubhc  services  as  in  the  enduring  emphasis  placed 
upon  the  fact  that  a  man  may  be  a  statesman  or  a 
hero,  as  well  by  service  to  childhood  and  ideals  of 
human  training,  as  by  subtlety  in  argument  or  bold 
courage  in  war.  The  fame  of  Curry  is  secure,  for 
it  is  the  persistent  fame  of  the  teacher  and  the  re- 
former. 


/ 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Note-books,  diaries  and  scrap-books;  letter-books,  news- 
paper clippings  and  scraps  kept  by  Dr.  Curry. 

Letters  of  various  persons  to  Dr.  Curry;  and  letters  from 
him  to  various  persons. 

Loose  sheets,  memoranda,  and  sundry  manuscript  papers 
collected  and  preserved  by  Dr.  Curry. 

Contemporaneous  newspapers,  including  the  Religious 
Herald,  the  Atlanta  Constitution,  the  Nashville  Ameri- 
can, the  Richmond  Times,  the  Washington  Post,  the 
New  York  Herald,  and  many  others. 

United  States  Education  Report  for  1893. 

Special  Report,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  by  A.  D. 
Mayo. 

Proceedings  of  the  Peabody  Education  Fund. 

Southern  Historical  Society  Papers,  Richmond,  Va. 

Report  of  the  American  Historical  Society  for  1897. 

J.  L.  M.  Curry's  "History  of  the  Peabody  Fund." 

Publications  of  the  Southern  Historical  Association. 
Washington,  D.  C,  Vol.  V.,  1901. 

"J.  L.  M.  Curry:  An  Address,"  by  Edwin  Anderson  Alder- 
man, 1903. 

White's  "Historical  Collections  of  Georgia." 

Appleton's  "  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography." 

"National  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography." 

William  G.  Brown's  "History  of  Alabama." 

Edgar  G.  Murphy's  "Problems  of  the  Present  South." 

Congressional  Globe,  1857-1858. 

Alexander  White's  "History  of  the  United  States." 

S.  S.  Cox's  "Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legislation." 

Closkey's  "Political  Cyclopedia." 

453 


454  BIBLIOGEAPHY 

Woodrow  Wilson's  "Division  and  Reunion." 
Eben  G.  Scott's  "Reconstruction  during  the  Civil  War." 
Alexander  H.  Stephens's  "War  between  the  States." 
"The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation."     Papers  on 

"Georgia"  and  "Alabama";  and  the  volumes  on  the 

"Economic  History  of  the  South." 
Von  Hoist's  "Calhoun"  in  "The  Statesman  Series." 
Joseph  LeConte's  "Autobiography." 
Nicholas   Murray   Butler's   "Education   in   the   United 

States." 
Alexander  Johnston's  "American  Politics,"  1892. 
"The  Works  of  John  C.  Calhoun,"  in  4  vols.     Charleston 

and  New  York,  1851-1854. 
Biography  and  correspondence  of  Calhoun  in  the  Ameri- 
can Historical  Association  Reports  for  1899. 
Ford's  "Rise  and  Growth  of  American  Politics,"   1898. 
Powell's  "Nullification  and  Secession,"  1897. 
Lalor's  "Political  Cyclopsedia,"  3  Vols. 
Reuben  Davis's  "Mississippi  and  Mississippians." 
Ethel  Armes's  "The  Story  of  Iron  and  Coal  in  Alabama," 

1910. 
Blackford's  "Trial  of  Jefferson  Davis"  in  Virginia  State 

Bar  Association  Reports. 
Curtis's  "The  True  Thomas  Jefferson." 
Fleming's  "Civil  War  and  Reconstruction  in  Alabama 


)t 


SOCIETIES  OF  WHICH  DR.  CURRY  WAS 

A  MEMBER 

1.  Phi  Sigma  Society  of  University  of  Mississippi. 

2.  Virginia  Historical  Society;    Member  of  Executive 

Committee. 

3.  Alabama  Historical  Society. 

4.  Southern  Historical  Association;   President. 

5.  Southern  History  Association;  President. 

6.  American  History  Association. 

7.  Virginia  Baptist  Historical  Society. 

8.  Massachusetts    Historical    Society:     Corresponding 

Member. 

9.  Southern  Club  of  Harvard  University. 

10.  American  Society  for  Extension  of  University  Train- 

ing: Member  of  Council  of  Twenty. 

11.  Evangehcal  AUiance  of  the  United  States. 

12.  American  Colonization  Society. 

13.  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  of  William  and  Mary  Col- 

College. 

14.  Northwest  Literary  and  Historical  Society. 

15.  Curry  Literary  Society  of  Winthrop  Normal  and  In- 

dustrial College,  S.  C. 

16.  Royal  Order  of  Charles  III:  Spanish  Decoration:  con- 

ferred May  16,  1902. 


455 


Between  Oct.  5,  1881,  and 
Oct.  4,  1882,  the  Legislatures' 
of  Georgia  and  Texas  were  also 
addressed.  —  See  Proceedings 
of  the  Peabody  Fund,  page  63 
of  Vol.  III. 


Between  October  4,  1882,  and  Oc- 
tober 3,  1883,  the  Legislature  of  Ala- 
-  bama  was  also  addressed. — See  Pea- 
body     Fund    Proceedings,   Vol.    Ill, 
page  123. 


LEGISLATURES  ADDRESSED 

1881:  March  8:  Texas. 

March  18:  Tennessee. 

August  5:  Georgia. 
1882:  January  27:  South  CaroHna. 

:  West  Virginia. 

February  1:  Mississippi. 
1883:  January  19:  North  Carohna 

January  26:  Arkansas. 

February  9:  Tennessee 

February  20:  Florida. 
1884:  January  10:  Virginia. 

January  21:  Mississippi. 

January  25:  Kentucky. 

February  4:  U.  S.  House  Committee,  on  Federal 
Aid. 

February  11:  Joint  Committee  of  Virginia  Legis- 
lature, in  favor  of  a  Normal  School. 

May  20 :  Louisiana. 

December  3 :  South  Carolina. 
1885:  January  12:  North  Carolina. 

January  16:  Arkansas. 

February  3 :  Florida. 

February  6:  Alabama. 

February  10:  Tennessee. 
1888:  December  13:  Georgia. 
1889:  January  18:  South  Carolina. 

January  24:  Arkansas. 

February  1:  Alabama.  *■ 

1890:  May  20:  Louisiana. 

December  9:  South  Carolina. 

456 


LEGISLATURES   ADDRESSED         457 

1891 :  January  21 :  North  Carolina. 
1892:  February  4:  Virginia. 
1893:  February  7:  Tennessee. 

February  8:  Arkansas. 

February  10:  Texas. 

October  31:  Georgia. 
1894:  January  17:  Mississippi. 

February  10:  Virginia  House  Finance  Committee, 
by  request,  favoring  Normals. 

May  16:  Louisiana. 

December  13:  South  Carolina. 
1896:  February  26:  Mississippi. 

December  2:  Alabama. 
1897:  January  25:  North  Carolina. 

March  5:  Arkansas. 

March  8:  Texas. 

April  29:  Florida. 

November  29 :  Georgia. 
1898:  January  17:  Mississippi. 

March  4:  Alabama  House  and  Senate  Committees 
on  Public  Lands,  favoring  appropriations  for 
Normals. 

March  7:  Ditto. 
1899:  November  24:  Georgia  House  of  Representatives. 
1900:  February  7:  South  Carohna. 

November  22:  Alabama. 

November  23 :  Georgia. 

It  is  not  certain  that  the  above  is  a  full  list :  for  the  rec- 
ords of  several  years  are  more  or  less  incomplete. 

In  the  majority  of  cases,  these  addresses  were  made  at 
the  invitation  of  the  legislatures,  and  were  recognized  by 
a  vote  of  thanks.  Several  times  printed  copies  were  or- 
dered ;  once  or  twice  a  copy  was  requested  for  transcription 
upon  the  minute  book  of  the  assembly. 


INDEX 


Abolitionists,  68,  69,  71,  118. 
Adams,  Charles  Francis,  96. 
Adams,  Gen.  Wirt,  186. 
Adee,  312. 
Alabama, 

Constitution  of,  30,  31. 

Statehood  of,  31. 

Slavery  in,  31. 

Meaning  of,  34. 

Immigration  to,  37,  38. 

Land  speculation  in,  37. 

Early  settlers  of,  38. 

Religion  in,  39. 

Political  creed  of,  40. 

Political  candidates  in,  43,  44. 

Political  situation  in,  44. 

Establishment  of  University  of, 
45. 

Establishment  of  public  schools 
in,  76. 

Capitol  of,  92. 

House  of  Representatives  of,  92. 

Platform  of,  94. 

Representatives  of,  115. 

Senators  of,  115. 

Secession  of,  148,  151. 
Alamo,  70,  85. 
Alderman,  Edwin  A.,  357. 
Andrews,  Garnett,  20. 
Arbitration,  international,  349. 
Armstrong.  Gen.  S.  C,  277,  285. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  276,  385,  386. 

Baldwin,  Joseph  G.,  6,  7. 

Baldwin,  W.  H.,  357. 

Bancroft,  Geo.,  276. 

Barnwell,  Robert  W.,  154. 

Battle  at  Selma,  187. 

"Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic," 

142. 
Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  407. 
Beauregard,  Gen.,  181,  182,  213. 
Bell.  111. 
Benjamin,  Judah  P.,  395,  401,  402, 

403. 
Benton,  Jessie,  134. 


Benton,  Thomas  H.,  79. 

Bernard,  Henry,  75. 

Bocock,  Thomas  S.,  136,  164,  407. 

Bonham,  Milledge  L.,  22. 

Bowden,  William  P.,  84. 

Bowdon,  Franklin  W.,  83. 

Bowie,  Andrew  W.,  84. 

Bowie,  Ann  Alexander,  98. 

Bowie,  James,  21. 

Bowie,  Judge  Alexander,  98. 

Boyce,  J.  P.,  403. 

Boyce,  W.  W.,  22. 

Black  Belt,  37. 

Blaine,  James  G.,  death  of,  339. 

Blair,  Francis  P.,  127. 

Blair  Bill,  329,  330,  331,  332. 

Blakely,  37. 

Breckinridge,  112,  114,  140. 

Bright,  John,  386,  389. 

Broadus,  Dr.  J.  A.,  227,  403,  406, 

407. 
Brooks,  406. 

Brown.  John,  118,  131,  132. 
Brownlow,  Col.,  181. 
Bryce,  386,  390,  391. 
Buchanan,  112,  114,  407. 
Bureau  of  Education,  273, 
Burlingame,  Anson,  66. 
Burrows,     Dr.    J.    L.,    226,    231, 

403. 
Butler,  Wm.  Orlando,  92,  97. 
Buttrick,  Wallace,  357,  374,  375. 

Calhoun,  John  C,  9,  21,  40,  69,  70, 
78,  79,  91,  92,  104,  151,  351-354. 
Cameron,  Col.  Wm.  E.,  245. 
Camp  Meetings,  105. 
Canovas,  301,  313. 
Caperton,  Senator,  213. 
Capon  Springs  Conference,  356. 
Cartersville,  176. 
Cary  sisters,  143. 
Cass,  Lewis,  97. 
Castelar,  301,  311,  312,  313. 
Chamberlain,  Hon.  Joseph,  340. 
Cherry  Hill,  24. 


459 


460 


INDEX 


Chilton,  William  P.,  154,  161,  191. 
Clabaugh,  Samuel,  11. 
Clay,  Clement  C,  Jr.,  115. 
Cleburne,  General  Pat,  383,  384. 
Cleveland,  President,  284,  327,  328, 

407. 
Clopton,  David,  152. 
Cobb,  Howell,   154,  395,  399,  401. 
Cobb,  Thomas  Reade  Rootes,  154. 
Cobb,  Williamson  R.  W.,  115. 
Cockrell.  General,  383,  384. 
Co-education,   Curry's  opinion  of, 

43. 
Coleman,  Dr.,  239, 
Colfax,  Schuyler,  137. 
Colquitt,  Senator  W.  T.,  80. 
Common  school  system,  223,  224, 

282. 
Common  Schools,  361. 
Compromise  Measures,  102. 
Confederacy,  92, 

Congress  of,  156,  158,  159,  160. 

Admits  Missouri  and  Kentucky, 
160. 

Legislation  of  Congress  of,   164. 

Character  of  members  of   Con- 
gress of,  166. 

Depreciation  of  currency  of,  164, 
169. 

Constitution  of,  165,  166. 
Constitution,  Federal,  92. 
Constructionists,  92,  93. 
Consular   and    Diplomatic   Appro- 
priation Bill,  126. 
Convention, 

Huntsville,  29,  30. 

National  Democratic,  112. 

Of  seceding  states,  154. 
Coosa  River,  40. 
Coosa  Valley,  35,  38. 
Cotton-gin,  37. 

Cox,  Samuel  S.,  "Sunset,"  116. 
Crabb,  Geo.  W..  44. 
Crawford,  William  H.,  20. 
Crockett,  85. 
Crookes,  Dr.,  229,  230. 
Cruikshanks,  Marcus,  168. 
Crysler,  Gen.,  190. 
Cuba,  356. 
Cuban  claims,  307. 
Cunningham,  Dr.  C.  G.,  84. 
Curry,  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe, 

Birth  of,  3. 

Naming  of,  3,  4. 


Curry,  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe, 
Boyhood  of,  4. 
Parents  of,  8. 
Americanism  of,  9,  66,  351,  431, 

432. 
Earliest  recollections  of,  10. 
Death  of  mother  of,  10. 
Step-mother  of,  10,  11. 
Early  Education  of,  15-16. 
School-boy  pranks  of,  16. 
First  departure  from  home  of,  18. 
Later  education  of,  18,  21. 
College  life  of,  45,  47,  48. 
Early  teaching  days  of,  49. 
Classmates  of,  50,  51. 
Friends  and  acquaintances  of,  54, 

55. 
Sees  himself  in  print,  56. 
Political  experiences  of,  56,  57. 
Acquaintance    with    ladies,    57, 

58. 
Further  education  of,  58-60. 
Enters  Harvard  Law  School,  64. 
Classmates  at  Harvard  of,  66. 
Intellectual    atmosphere    during 

young  manhood  of,  67,  68. 
Letters  of,  72,  73. 
Political  leaders  in  youth  of,  71, 

72,  73. 
Recollections  of  Webster  of,  72, 

73, 
Writes  letters  for  publication,  74. 
Enlists,  75. 
Leader  in  movement  for  popular 

education,  75,  76. 
Personal  appearance  of,  77. 
Receives  degree  of  Bachelor  of 

Laws,   77. 
Visits  Washington  and  the  Sen- 
ate, 78. 
Witnesses  inauguration  of  Polk 

and  Dallas,  79. 
Harvard's  effect  on,  80. 
Reads  law,  82,  88. 
Attempts   to   serve   in    Mexican 

War,  84.  85. 
Admitted  to  bar,  86. 
Abandons     practise     and     tries 

farming,  86. 
Enters  politics,  87,  88,  89. 
Remarkable  letter  by,  89,  90. 
Elected  to  legislature,  92. 
Chairman     of    important    com- 
mittee, 94. 


INDEX 


461 


Curry,  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe, 

Introduces  bill,  95. 

Marriage  of,  98. 

Children  of,  98. 

Buys  brother's  farm,  104. 

Resumes  law  practise,  104. 

Moves  to  Marion,  104. 

Hospitality  of,  104,  105. 

As  railroad  agent,  105. 

Re-elected  to  legislature,  105. 

Chairman  of  committees,  105. 

Obtains  passage  of  bill  for  geo- 
logical survey,  107. 

Death  of  father,  108. 

Opposes  Know-Nothings,  109, 
110. 

Re-elected  to  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, 110. 

Eloquence  of.  111. 

Delegate  to  State  Democratic 
convention,    112. 

Popularity  of,  113. 

Writes  for  papers,  113. 

Elected  to  Congress,  115. 

Moves  to  Washington,  115. 

Favors  armory  in  Shelby  county, 
116. 

Speaks  on  Kansas  question,  117. 

As  secessionist,  119,  120,  121. 

Opposes  pensions  for  soldiers  of 
1812,  123,  124,  125. 

Hears  Patti  sing,  124. 

Opposes  publication  of  Congres- 
sional debates,  127. 

Temper  of  the  times,  131,  132, 
133. 

On  the  Committee  of  Naval  af- 
fairs, 137. 

Asked  to  defend  President  Bu- 
chanan, 137. 

As  "Watchdog  of  the  Treasury," 
137,  138. 

Enters  presidential  canvass,  145. 

Advocates  secession,  145. 

Withdraws  from  House,  152. 

Offers  Longstreet's  services,  157. 

Visits  Manassas  battlefield,  159. 

Meets  Gen.  Johnston  and  Gen. 
Beauregard,  159. 

Opposes  admission  of  Missouri 
and  Kentucky  into  Confed- 
eracy, 160. 

Candidate  for  re-election,  168. 

Defeated,  168. 


Curry,  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe, 

Turns  to  war,  171. 

Visits  Chickamauga  battle-field, 
171. 

Final  term  in  House,  173,  174. 

Appointed  Commissioner,  175. 

Religious  spirit  of,  175. 

Serves  on  Gen.  Johnston's  staff, 
176. 

Joins  Gen.  Wheeler,  179. 

Military  experience  of,  179,  180, 
181. 

Aide  to  Gen.  Roddy,  181. 

Promoted  to  rank  of  Lt.  Colonel, 
182. 

Ordered  back  from  Rogersville, 
184. 

Life  saved  by  New  York  Tribune, 
186. 

Bill  filed  against,  191. 

Receives  pardon,  192. 

Elected  college  president,  195. 

Death  of  wife  of,  189. 

Captures  Federal  soldier,  190. 

Surrenders,  190. 

Arrested,    190. 

Paroled,   190. 

Moves  to  Marion,  195. 

Ordained  to  ministry,  195. 

Religious  history  of,  196,  197, 
198. 

As  a  preacher,  199,  200,  201,  208, 
212,  213,  215. 

Favors  education  of  negroes,  201. 

Diary  entries,  202,  203,  204. 

Second  marriage,  206. 

Sails  to  Europe,  206. 

Opposes  Reconstruction  Consti- 
tution, 208. 

Resigns  college  presidency,  209. 

Accepts  professorship  in  Rich- 
mond College,  213. 

Declines  pastorships,  215. 

Meets  Geo.  Peabody,  221. 

Declines  three  college  presiden- 
cies, 224. 

Declines  professorships,  224,  225. 

Attacks  Church  of  England,  229, 
230. 

Restored  to  full  citizenship,  237. 

Offered  Cabinet  position,  238. 

Visits  old  home,  240,  241. 

Declines  political  appointments, 
248. 


462 


INDEX 


Curry,  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe, 

Elected  agent  of  Peabody  Fund, 

249. 
Resigns  from  Richmond  College, 

251. 
Work  for  schools,  254-278. 
Reports  on  Peabody  Fund,  261, 

262. 
Minister  to  Spain,  260,  280. 
Resigns    as    agent    of    Peabody 

Fund,  281. 
Visits  Lowell,  293. 
Arrives  in  Madrid,  295. 
Attends  King's  funeral,  298. 
Received  by  Queen  as  Minister, 

299. 
Social  life  of,  300,  301,  302. 
Attends    baby    King's    baptism, 

304,  305. 

Negotiates     commercial     treaty, 

305,  306. 

Bayard's  praise  of,  309. 

Attends  sessions  of  Spanish  Con- 
gress, 310. 

Correspondents  of,  315. 
Resigns    as    Minister    to    Spain, 

317. 
Works  for  Blair  Bill,  320. 
As    Peabody    Fund    agent,    323, 

324,  325,  326,  327,  328. 
Ill  health  of,  328,  329. 
Elected  manager  of  Slater  Fund, 

333. 
Elected    Honorary    Member    of 

Peabody  Board,  337. 
Friendship    of    Hayes    for,    338, 

339. 
Literary  work  of,  341,  342,  343, 

344. 
Sails  for  Europe,  344. 
Visits  Greece,  345-346. 
Meets  Goldwin  Smith,  348. 
Member    of    Arbitration    Com- 
mittee,  349. 
Re-elected    agent    for    Peabody 

Fund,  350. 
Visits  Naples,  353. 
Visits  Egypt,  355. 
Visits  Rome  and   Monte  Carlo, 

356. 
Calls    on    President    McKinley, 

356. 
Elected     President     educational 

conference,  356. 


Curry,  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe, 

As  Director  of  Southern  Educa- 
tion Board,  356. 

Failing  health  of,  359. 

Entertains  National  University 
Committee,  361. 

Continued  work  for  education, 
362,  363,  364. 

Achievements  as  Peabody  agent, 
.      364,  365. 

Elected  to  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society,  367. 

Confers  with  President  Roose- 
velt, 367. 

Appointed  Special  Envoy  to 
Spain,  367. 

Consults  Dr.  Osier,  368. 

Calls  on  Eulalia  and  Queen  Isa- 
bel, 368. 

Spain's  reception  of,  368,  369. 

Receives  decoration  of  Royal 
Order,  371. 

Re-elected  General  Agent,  375. 

Estimate  of  Porter,  376. 

Addresses  Peabody  Normal  Col- 
lege, 377. 

Physical  suffering  of,  379. 

Death  of,  380. 

Burial,  380. 

Admiration  of  Calhoun,  382,  383. 

Hears  Matthew  Arnold,  386. 

Dines  with  Dean  Stanley,  386, 
387. 

Breakfasts  with  Beresford  Hope, 
387,  388. 

Visits  House  of  Commons,  388. 

Hears  Parnell  and  Dillon,  389. 

Hears  John  Bright,  389. 

Dines  with  Phelps,  389. 

Interview  with  Gladstone,  390. 

Hears  Spurgeon,  391,  392,  393, 
394. 

Hears  Prentiss,  398. 

As  representative  in  U.  S.  Con- 
gress, 401. 

Present  at  Davis'  inauguration, 
403. 

Pall-bearer  at  Johnston's  funeral, 
409. 

Educational  theories  of,  4 11-429. 

Religious  faith,  433. 

As  an  educator,  433. 

As  a  diplomatist,  434. 

As  an  author,  435. 


INDEX 


463 


Curry,  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe, 

As  an  orator,  435,  438,  439. 

Social  relations  of,  436,  437. 

Memorial  paper  on  death  of,  441, 
442,  443. 

Character  of,  443-448. 

Statue  of,  450. 
Curry,   Mrs.  J.  L.   M.,  character- 
istics of,  163. 
Curry,  Mrs.  J.  L.  M.  (2nd), 

As  Sunday  school  teacher,  221. 

Social  life  of,  302,  304. 

Visits  Europe,  340. 

Receives    letter    from     Spanish 
princess,  366. 

Visits  Eulalia  and  Queen  Isabel, 
368. 

Death  of,  380. 
Curry,  Jackson, 

Matriculation  of,  45. 

Joins  Phi  Kappa  Society,  47. 

Graduation  of,  58. 
Curry,  Jackson  C,  9,  10. 
Curry,  Jackson  Thomas,  98. 
Curry,  James  A.,  11. 
Curry,    Manly    Bowie,      99,     195, 

309. 
Curry,  Mark  Shipp,  11. 
Curry,  Susan  Lamar,  99. 
Curry,  Susie,  195. 
Curry,  Thomas,  11. 
Curry,  Walker,  11. 
Curry,  William,  8,  11,  12,  13,  26, 

Sells  "Dark  Corner"  home  and 
buys  in  Alabama,  29,  30. 

Migration  of,  32,  33. 

New  home  of,  33,  34,  38. 

Business  of,  40,  41. 
Curry  Memorial  School,  374. 
Currys,  origin  of,  8. 
Curtis,  Benjamin  R.,  132. 
Cutting,  Dr.  S.  S.,  227. 

Dabney,  Charles  W.,  357. 

Dallas,  71,  79. 

Dane  Law  School  of  Harvard,  61, 

64. 
Daniel,  Major  John  W.,  245. 
Dark  Corner,  The,  1,  2,  3;  inhab- 
itants of,  2,  3, 

Homes,  15. 

Schools,  schoolhouses  and  school- 
masters, 15,  16,  17,  18. 
Davis,  Henry  Winter,  407. 


Davis,  Jefferson, 

Elected  president  of  confederacy, 
154. 

Takes  oath  of  office,  155. 

Inaugural  address,  155,  156. 

Inauguration  of,  162. 

Cabinet  appointments  of,  162. 

Trial  of,  216-218. 
Davis,  Dr.  Noah  K.,  49. 
Davis,  Reuben,  7,  85. 
Dawes,  Henry  L.,  116. 
Dawn  of  War,  141,  142. 
Dayton,  Wm.  L.,  114. 
"Debt-payers,"  246. 
Democracy,  56,  57. 
Demopolis,  39. 
Dix,  Dorothea,  96. 
Doane,  Bishop  Wm.  Croswell,  376. 
Donelson,  Andrew  Jackson,  114. 
Dooley,  Judge  John  M.,  13. 
Double  Branches,  25. 
Douglass,  Frederick,  74,  118. 
Dow,  Lorenzo,  39. 
Dowdell,  James  F.,  115. 
Dred  Scott  case,  114,  132. 
Duane,  84. 
Dudley,  Bishop,  356. 
Duke  of  Almodovar,  368. 

Early,  Gen.  Jubal  A.,  228,  408. 

Easter  in  Greece,  345,  346,  347. 

Eaton,  Gen.,  273. 

Echols,  Gen.,  213. 

Electoral    Commission,    234,    235, 

236,  237. 
Ellis,  Harvey  W.,  44. 
English,  development  of,  49,  50. 
Evans,  Augusta,  149. 
Evarts,  William  M.,  407. 
Evarts,  Wm.  H.,  377. 
Everett,  111. 
Ezekiel,  Moses,  239,  240. 

Faneuil  Hall,  69. 

Fearn,  Thomas,  154. 

"Fiat  money,"  29. 

Fillmore,  Millard,  97,  114. 

Finn,  Daniel  W.,  25,  42. 

Fitzpatrick,  Benjamin,  115. 

Fleming,  Joel,  15. 

Fleming,  Robert,  13. 

"Flush   Times  of   Mississippi   and 

Alabama,"  29. 
Foote,  Henry  S.,  164. 


464 


INDEX 


Forrest,  Gen.,  186,  187,  188. 
Fort  Mims,  35. 
Fort  Sumter  fired  on,  153. 
Franklin  College,  45, 

Curriculum  of,  48,  49. 
Fraser,  Dr.,  375. 
Frayser,  mischief  of,  19. 
Free  Schools,   257,   258,   260,   233, 

268,  273,  275,  286. 
Free  Soilers,  96. 

Platform  of,  96. 
Freedman's  Bureau,  191,  193,  424. 
Fremont,  John  C,  134. 
Frizzell,  Mollis  B.,  357. 
Frothingham,  91,  120. 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  102. 
Fuller,  Chief  Justice,  377. 
Fuller,  Dr.,  212. 
Fuller,  Richard,  403,  404,  405,  406. 

Garnett,  164. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  68,  69, 
74,  91,  120. 

Gates,  Frederick  T.,  374. 

General  Education  Board,  373,  374, 
375. 

General  Education  Fund,  377. 

Georgia,  38. 

"Georgia  Scenes"  by  Judge  Long- 
street,  2,  21. 

Gholson,  Samuel  J.,  6. 

Gilman,  Dr.,  363,  376. 

Gladstone,  386,  390,  391. 

Gordon,  John  B.,  148. 

Government  and  state  of  society  in 
Curry's  youth,  5-7. 

Grant,  407. 

Greece,  Easter  in,  345,  346,  347. 

Green,  Dr.  S.  A.,  284,  323. 

Green,  Wm.,  223. 

Greeley,  Horace,  122,  385. 

Green  Bag,  65. 

Greenbrier  White,  227. 

Greenbrier  White  Sulphur  Springs, 
213. 

Greenleaf,  Simon,  64,  65,  66. 

Griffin,  Col.,  114. 

Hale,  Stephen  F.,  154. 
Halyburton,  Judge,  223. 
Hamlin,  Hannibal,  143. 
Hampton  Institute,  277,  285,  286, 

425. 
Handspiker,  Stephen,  13. 


Harcourt,  Sir  William  Vernon,  388. 

Harris,  Dr.,  22. 

Harris,  H.  H.,  380. 

Hatcher,  Dr.,  212. 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  66,  407, 

Attitude      toward      presidential 
campaign  of  1877,  76,  77. 

Visits  negro  cabin,  338. 

Death  of,  339. 
Haygood,  Bishop,  333. 
Haywood,  Wm.  Henry,  79. 
Helper,  Hinton  R.,  132. 
Hemphill,  John,  154. 
Hendricks,  Thomas  A.,  296. 
Henley,  M.,  13. 
Henry,  Patrick,  40. 
Heroes  of  Mexican  War,  95. 
Hill,    Benjamin   Harvey,    51,    154, 

395,  396. 
Hillard,  George  Stillman,  73. 
Hoar,  376,  377. 
Hoge,  Moses  D.,  403. 
Hollywood,   380. 
Hood,  Gen.,  177,  178,  181,  182. 
Hooker,  Joe,  408. 
Hope,  Beresford,  386,  3S7,  388. 
Hope,  Lady,  388. 
Horseshoe  Bend,  35. 
Houston,  Geo.  S.,  115,  152. 
Houston,  Sam,  14,  85. 
Howard  College,  195. 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  142. 

"Impending  Crisis,"  132,  136. 
Indian  depredations,  215. 
Indians,  34,  35,  36. 
Isabel  Point,  84. 

Jack,  Susan,  98. 

Jackson,  Gen.  Andrew,  35. 

Jackson,  Henry  R.,  55. 

Jackson,  "Stonewall,"  384,  385. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  40,  50,  274. 

Jesup,  Morris  K.,  376. 

Jeter,  Dr.  J.  B.,  227,  380,  403,  404. 

Johnston,  Gen.,  176-178,  408,  409. 

Jones,  Dr.  T.  G.,  406. 

Judson  Female  Institute,  195. 

Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  112. 
Kansas  Question,  119. 
Kelly,  Gen.,  181. 
Kelly's  Springs,  29,  32, 
Indians  of,  35,  36. 


INDEX 


465 


Kentucky    passes    bill    improving 

school  system,  276. 
Khedive,  355. 
King,  Wm.  R.,  93. 
King  of  Spain,  birth  of,  302,  303; 

baptism  of,  303,  304,  305. 
Know-Nothing  Party,  108, 

Platform  of,  110. 

Waning  of,  111. 
Knox,  William  W.,  83. 

Lamar,  Captain  John,  13. 
Lamar,  Lafayette,  18, 

Marriage  of  sister  of,  19. 

Vandalism,  19. 

Death  of,  50. 

Academic  honors  of,  59. 
Lamar,  Lucius  Quintus  Curtius,  14, 

115. 
Lamar,  Mirabeau  B.,  14. 
Lamar,  Peter,  13,  19. 
Land,  Government,  Speculation  in, 

36,  37. 
Lane,  140. 

Langdon,  Hon.  C.  C,  111. 
Le  Conte,  Joseph, 

Letter  of,  51,  52. 

Birth  of,  53. 

Death  of,  53. 

Career  of,  53,  395. 
Lee,  Gen.  Robert  E.,  188,  213.  214, 

223,  409,  445. 
Letcher,  Gov.,  213,  228. 
Lewis,  David  P.,  154. 
Lewis,  Dixon  H.,  78. 
Lewis,  Dixon  M.,  92,  93, 

Chosen  for  U.  S.  Senate,  93. 
"Liberator,"  69,  120. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  143,  153. 
Lincoln,  Benjamin,  1. 
Lincoln  County,  1,  2, 

Moral  fibre  of,  12,  13. 

Religious  influences,  14. 

Religious  liberality,  26. 

Politics  of,  26. 
Lincolnton,  1,  18,  19,  20. 
Linton,  395,  397. 
Little  River,  1. 
Lockhart,  B.,  13. 
Lockhart,  John,  13. 
London,  A    Sunday  in,  392,    393, 

394. 
Longstreet,  Judge,  2,  21. 
Longstreet,  Major  James,  167. 


Lovejoy,  Owen,  91,  116. 
Lumpkin,  Judge  Joseph  H.,  20. 

Mahone,  Gen.  Wm.,  245,  246. 

Mann,  Horace,  17,  74,  75. 

Manly,  Basil,  403. 

Manly,  Sr.,  406. 

Mardisville,  Ala.,  36. 

Marengo  County,  39. 

Marion,  195,  201. 

Marquis  of  Villalobar,  368,  369. 

Marshall,  40. 

"Maryland,  my  Maryland,"  143. 

Mason,  James  Murray,  102. 

Maury,  Commodore,  213. 

Mayo,  Rev.  A.  D.,  208. 

McCrae,  Colin  J.,  154. 

McCulloch,  Ben,  85. 

McDuffie,  Geo.,  21,  24,  79. 

Mcintosh,  201. 

Mclver,  Charles  D.,  351. 

McKerley,  Rev.,  18. 

McKinley,  President,  356. 

Meek,  Alexander  B.,  106. 

Meek,  Judge,  76. 

Meminger,  Charles  G.,  154. 

Memorial  Campaign,  225,  226, 227. 

Mercer  University,  208. 

Meteoric  Shower,  18. 

Mexican  War,  Heroes  of,  95. 

Miller,  Andrew,  21. 

Mims,  Fort,  35. 

Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  368. 

Mississippi  River,  35,  37. 

Mississippi  State,  37. 

Missouri  Compromise,  101. 

Mitchell,  Thomas,  13. 

Mobile,  37. 

Montgomery  (city),  37,  83,  92. 

Montgomery,  James,  84. 

Montgomery      White       Sulphur 

Springs,  227. 
Moore,  Andrew  B.,  201. 
Moore,  Sydenham,  115,  152. 
Morehead.  Mrs.,  375. 
Moret,  307,  308,  309,  311,  313. 
Morgan,  J.  Pierpont,  284,  375,  376. 
Morley,  388. 

Mosby,  Colonel  John  S.,  383,  384. 
Murphy,  Edgar  Gardner,  357,  358. 
Murray,  Hon.  Thomas  W.,  11,  13. 

Nashville  Normal  School,  269,  260, 
264,  265,  282. 


466 


INDEX 


National    University    Committee, 

361. 
Negro, 

Education  of,  267,  268,  270,  274, 
282,  285,  286,  334,  335,  336, 
337,  363,  423-427,  437,  445. 

Evils  of  superstitions  of,  28. 
New  England,  38. 
New  Hope  battle,  383,  384. 
Normal  Schools,  263,  264. 
North  Carolina,  38. 
Nullification,  94,  151. 

O'Conor,  Chas.,  216. 

Ogden,  Robert  C,  356,  359,  360, 

361. 
Orators,  72,  73. 
Orr,  James  L.,  116. 
Osier,  Wm.,  368. 

Page,  Walter  H.,  357. 

Park,  Edward  Amasa,  73. 

Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  386. 

Parsons,  Lewis  E.,  109. 

Patterson,  Col.  Josiah,  182,  185. 

Patti,  Adelina,  124,  125. 

Payne,  Dr.  Wm.  H.,  260,  322,  325, 

326. 
Peabody,    George,    204,    221,    222, 

248,  281,  357,  447. 
Peabody  Board   of  Trustees,   261, 

275,  276,  277,  281,  283,  284,  285- 

291,  326,  327,  350,  376. 
Peabody  Fund,  204,  221,  248,  254, 

255,  256,  257,  258,  259,  261,  266, 

267,  270,  272,  275,  277,  282,  283, 

284,  320-328,  357,  362,  364,  377, 

440. 
Peabody  Normal  College,  376,  377, 

378. 
Peabody  Trustees  Memorial,  441, 

442,  443. 
Pennington,  Wm.,  136,  137. 
Pension  Bill,  123,  124,  125. 
Perry,  Wm.  F.,  106. 
Petigru,  James  Lewis,  21. 
Philippines,  356. 
Phillips,   Wendell,   68,  69,  71,   91, 

120,  398. 
Pickens,  Gov.,  213. 
Pierce,  George,  406. 
Plumer,  W.  S.,  403,  404. 
Political  conditions,  90,  91. 
Political  storm  gathering,  70,  71. 


Political  tension,  133,  134,  135,  136. 
Polk,  President  James  K.,  71,  79, 

92. 
Polk,  General  Leonidas,  383,  384, 
Porter,  Governor,  375,  376. 
Porter,  Hon.  James  D.,  260. 
Porto  Rico,  356. 

Prentiss,  Sergeant  S.,  395,  398,  399. 
Presidential  election  of  1876,  234, 

235. 
Preston,  164. 

Price,  Prof.  Thomas  R.,  49. 
Pugh,  James  L.,  152. 
Pushmatahaw,  story  of,  5-7. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  66. 
Quitman,  Gen.  John  A.,  95. 

"Race  Conference,"  363. 
Railroad,  transcontinental,  95. 
Rampolla,  Cardinal,  298. 
Randall,  James  Ryder,  143. 
Rantoul,  Robert,  Jr.,  74. 
Raymond,   201. 
Readjuster  Party,  245. 
Reconstruction,  193. 
Reconstruction  State  Constitution, 

208. 
Remsen,  David  H.,  11,  45,  47. 
Remsen,  Mrs.  Mary,  11. 
Republican  platform  of  1860,  143, 

144. 
Rice,  Samuel  W.,  82. 
Richmond,  158. 
Richmond  College,  380. 
Richmond  College  Law  School,  223. 
Riddleberger,  246. 
Rives,  William  C,  164. 
Rockefeller,  John  D.,  373,  374,  375. 
Roddy,  Gen.,  181,  182,  184. 
Roger,  Henry  D.,  107. 
Rogers,  Wm.  Barton,  107. 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  8,  407. 
Rose,  Wyckliffe,  359. 
Ruffner,  Dr.  Wm.  H.,  230,  277,  286. 

Salisbury,  388. 
Samson,  Dr.,  123. 
San  Jacinto,  85. 
Sands,  A.  H.,  161. 
Savannah  River,  1. 
Schaff,  Philip,  403. 
School  law,  105,  106. 


INDEX 


467 


Sears,  Dr.  Barnas,  221,  222,  223, 

227,  241,  242,  249,  254,  255,  256, 

261,  364,  376. 
Secession,  69,  70,  119,  120,  121,  122, 

150,  151. 
Seismographs,  52. 
Selma,  37,  187. 
Semmes,  Raphael,  157. 
Semmes,  Thomas  J.,  66. 
Seven  Days'  Battles,  163. 
Shaler,  Nathaniel  S.,  Theory  of,  8. 
Shaw,  Albert,  357. 
Sherman,  Gen.  John,  136,  177,  178, 

407.  408,  409. 
Shields,  James,  95. 
"Shin-plaster,"  29,  37. 
Shorter,  John  Gill,  154. 
Siamese  Twins,  24. 
Sickles,  368. 
Simmons,  Sterne,  13. 
Simpkins,  R.,  368,  369,  375. 
Slater,  Eli  S.,  115. 
"Slater  Fund,"  268,  269,  270,  271, 

325,  332,  333,  334,  362,  377. 
Slater,  John  F.,  268,  269,  271. 
Slater  Trustees,  337. 
Slavery,  44,  68,  69,  70,  88,  91,  100, 

114,  117,  118,  119,  120.  121,  122, 

131,  132,  133,  138,  144. 
Smith,  Dr.  C.  A.,  374. 
Smith,  Goldwin,  348. 
Smith,  Hoke,  376. 
Smith,  R.  H.,  154. 
South  Carolina,  38,  147. 
Southern  Convention,  103. 
Southern  depression,  169,  170. 
Southern  Education,  445,  446,  447, 

448,  449. 
Southern    Education    Board,    356, 

357,  358,  359,  360,  374. 
Southern     Education     Conference, 

363. 
Southern   Historical    Society,    227, 

228. 
Southern  loyalty,  157,  158. 
Spanish   Congress,   310,   311,   312, 

313. 
Spanish  War,  352. 
Spurgeon,  386,  391,  392,  393,  394, 

406. 
"Squatter  Sovereignty,"  112. 
Stallworth,  James  A.,  115,  152. 
Stanley,  Dean,  386,  387. 
Staples,  164. 


"State  Aid,"  106. 

Stearns,  Dr.,  260,  325. 

Stephen,  388. 

Stephens,   Alexander  H.,   53,    154, 

162,  213,  395,  396,  397. 
Stephens,  Linton,  53,  69,  61. 
St.  Stephens,  37. 
Stevenson,  Andrew,  92. 
Story,  Joseph,  64,  65,  66. 
Stovall,  J.,  13. 
Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  132. 
Strobel,  E.  H.,  307. 
Stuart,  Alexander  H.  H.,  213. 
Stump-speaking,  43,  44. 
Sumter,  Fort,  Firing  on  of,  153. 
Survey,  geological,  107. 

Tait,  Archbishop,  386. 
Talladega  County,  29,  33, 

Meaning  of  name  of,  34. 

As  a  thoroughfare,  38. 

Agricultural  products  of,  40. 

Roads  of,  40. 

Mail  facilities  of,  41. 

Preachers  of,  42. 

Schools  of,  42,  43. 
Taylor,  Gen.,  88,  90,  92,  97. 
Teachers'  Institutes,  264. 
Tennessee,  38. 
Tennessee  River,  38. 
Texas,  annexation  of,  70, 

Statehood  of,  82. 
Thomas,  James,  Jr.,  161,  206. 
Thomas,  Mary  W.,  206,  212. 
Thomas,  William  D.,  380 
Ticknor,  383. 
Tombigbie  River,  39. 
Toombs,  Robert,  21,  154,  279,  395, 

399,  400. 
"Tulane  Administrators,"  271. 
Tulane,  Paul,  271. 
Tulane  University,  271. 
Turpin,  Rev.  John  B.,  99. 
Tuscaloosa,  37. 
Tyler,  Pres.,  56,  57,  159. 

University  of  Alabama,  45. 
University  of  Georgia,  45. 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  132. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  96. 
Vaughn,  Mr.,  18. 
Vetoes,  106. 
Virginia,  38,  154. 


468 


INDEX 


Waddell,  Rev.  Moses.  21,  22,  23,24. 
Waddell,  James  P.,  22,  25. 
Waddell,  John  N.,  22,  25. 
Waldon,  Geo.  S..  172. 
Walker,  Leroy  Pope,  92, 

Elected  Speaker  of  House,  94. 
Walker,  Robert  W.,  154. 
Walker,  Richard  W.,  HI,  172,  173. 
Wallace,  James,  13. 
Walsh,  Mike,  78. 
Walton,  Robert,  13. 
Washburne,  Elihu,  407. 
Washington,  Booker  T.,  335,  375, 

425. 
Weston,  Dr.  H.  G.,  213. 
Wetumpka,  37,  40. 
Whiggery,  56,  57. 
Whigs,  nominees  of,  71. 
Whipple,  Bishop,  376. 
White,  Thomas,  Academic  honors 

of,  59. 
Whitney,  Asa,  95,  96. 
Wheeler,  Gen.  Joseph,  179,  181. 


Wigfall,  Lewis  T.,  154. 

Wilkes,  John,  1. 

Wilkes  County,  1,  12. 

Williams,  Dr.,  212. 

Willington  School,  21-25. 

Wilmot,  David,  100. 

Wilmot  Proviso,  88,  89,   100,  101, 

118. 
Wilson,  Gen.,  185,  186. 
Winn,  General,  8,  9. 
Winn,  Susan,  8. 
Winnsboro,  S.  C.,  8,  9. 
Winston,  Governor,  106,  107. 
Winthrop,    Robert    C.,    204,    249, 

292,  329,  330,  331,  341. 
Wise,  Henry  A.,  102,  109. 
Withers,  Col.  Robert  E.,  231. 
Withers,  T.  J..  154. 
Woodward,  Hon.  Thomas  B.,  109. 
Woodward,  Joseph  A.,  109. 
World's  Evangelical  Alliance,  229. 

Yancey,  W.  L.,  93,  94,  395,  398. 


THE  following  pages  cx)ntain  advertisements  of  a 
few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects 


THE  LETTERS  OF 

RICHARD  HENRY  LEE 

Collected  and  Edited  by  JAMES  CURTIS  BALLAGH,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

Associate  Professor  of  American  History  In  the  Johns 

Hopkins  University. 

Vol.  I.  Cloth,  8vo.,  467  pages.  $2.50  net;  by  mail,  $2.69 


"A  very  interesting  and  complete  collection  of  letters  of  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished, if  not  the  most  distinguished,  members  of  that  Virginia  family  whose 
name  has  been  so  conspicuous  in  American  history.  The  book  is  an  important 
contribution  to  historical  literature  and  should  prove  deeply  interesting  to  the 
student  and  entertaining  to  any  reader." — Baltimore  Evening  Sun. 

"The  volume  is  full  of  first-hand  information,  and  provides  not  only  interesting 
reading,  but  throws  new  light  upon  the  most  critical  period  of  our  history." — 
Christian  Work. 

"It  possesses  large  public  interest  and  historical  value." — Philadelphia  North 
American. 

"Will  be  welcome  to  all  readers  and  students  interested  in  the  early  history  of 
this  country.  Professor  Ballagh  has  brought  together  from  all  sources,  in  most 
cases  from  original  manuscripts  or  transcripts,  as  many  letters  of  historical  im- 
portance as  possible  that  are  of  the  indisputable  authorship  of  this  early  states- 
man."— Boston  Herald. 

"A  welcome  and  valuable  addition  to  the  documentary  history  of  the  Revolu- 
tion."— New  York  Sun. 

"The  letters  will  be  welcomed  for  their  historical  as  well  as  intrinsic  value  for 
biographical  purposes." — Herald. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

SIXTY-FOUR  AND  SIXTY-SIX  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


REMINISCENCES 

By  GOLDWIN   SMITH,  D.C.L. 
Edited  by  ARNOLD   HAULTAIN 


Cloth.    Gilt  top.    Illustrated  with  Photogravures  and  Half-tones. 
8vo,  429  pages,  $3.00  net;  by  mail,  $3.17. 


"This  autobiography  is  of  especial  interest  to  the  people  of  America,  for  the 
great  Canadian  was  a  British  friend  of  the  North  when  friends  were  badly  needed. 
For  this  reason  the  chapters  on  the  Civil  War  appeal  most  strongly  to  American 
readers,  and  those  who  read  them  will  be  entertained  by  their  originality  and 
sprightliness.  Mr.  Smith  was  in  close  touch  with  some  of  the  leading  men  of  the 
North  and  with  prominent  commanders  in  the  field,  and  his  impressions  gained 
from  this  acquaintanceship  make  highly  interesting  reading." — Pittsburg  Chronicle 
Telegraph. 

"It  is  a  book  of  wide  and  permanent  appeal,  not  only  to  students  of  politics 
and  economics,  but  also  to  the  larger  clientele  of  readers  ever  willing  to  welcome 
a  fresh  record  of  an  inspiring  age." — Philadelphia  North  American. 

"A  veritable  mine  of  pleasure,  a  big,  comfortable  companion  for  an  armchair 
by  the  fire  on  a  rainy  night." — Kentucky  Post. 

"A  well-conceived,  richly  endowed  volume  of  reminiscences  in  the  life  of  a  great 
and  good  man.  It  partakes  of  the  nature  of  an  autobiography,  but  includes  vastly 
more  of  everything  of  value  and  interest  that  is  inseparably  associated  with  the 
author's  life." — Telescope,  Dayton,  Ohio. 

"Filled  with  material  of  unusual  interest,  this  volume  will  be  welcomed  by  all 
admirers  of  the  late  Goldwin  Smith,  scholar,  educator,  publicist,  author,  whose 
name  was  revered  for  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century  throughout  the  United 
States,  Canada,  and  Great  Britain." — San  Francisco  Examiner. 


PUBLISHED   BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

SIXTY-FOUR  AND  SIXTY-SIX  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


"  The  best  biography  of  a  great  man  ever  written." 

THE   LIFE   OF    WILLIAM 
EWART  GLADSTONE 

By  the  Rt.  Hon.  JOHN   MORLEY 

Editor  of  "English  Men  of  Letters,"  Author  of  "Burke,"  "  Machiavelli,"  "Wal- 
pole,"  "On  Compromise,"  "Voltaire,"  "Rousseau,"  "Richard  Cobden," 
"Studies  in  Literature." 

New  Edition  in  two  volumes.     Preparing. 

"The  work  before  us  has  more  than  fulfilled  our  expectations;  it  is  indeed  a 
masterpiece  of  historical  writing,  of  which  the  interest  is  absorbing,  the  authority 
indisputable,  and  the  skill  consummate." — The  Saturday  Review,  London. 

"It  is  a  great  task  greatly  achieved,  a  grand  portraiture  of  a  grand  subject  on 
a  great  scale  and  in  a  worthy  style." — The  Spectator,  London. 

"The  volumes  show  a  powerful  intellect  and  a  practised  hand,  controlled  by 
the  loftiest  principles,  at  work  upon  a  great  theme  in  a  spirit  of  absolute  impar- 
tiality."— New  York  Tribune. 

"A  wonderful  and  satisfying  portrait  ...  an  absorbing  story  of  palpitating 
life." — The  Evening  Sun,  New  York. 


Correspondence  on  Church  and 
Religion  of  William  Ewart  Gladstone 

Selected  and  Arranged  by  D.  C.  LATHBURY. 
2  Vols.    Cloth,  Illustrated,  8vo.    $s.oo  net,  expressage  extra. 

The  work  of  the  Right  Hon.  William  Ewart  Gladstone,  one  of  England's  noblest 
statesmen,  has  always  claimed  serious  attention.  In  this  selection  from  his  corres- 
pondence, covering  a  period  of  over  sixty  years  of  eventful  history,  will  be  found  the 
carefully  considered  views  of  a  free  and  untrammeled  thinker  on  the  momentous 
religious  controversies  and  movements  of  his  period,  chronologically  arranged 
under  the  following  headings: 

Vol.  I.  Church  and  State,  1820-1894. — Ecclesiastical  Patronage  and  University 
Reform,  1869-1885. — The  Oxford  Movement,  1840-1894. — The  Scottish  Epis- 
copal Church,  1858-1862. 

Vol.  II.  Oxford  Elections.  1847-1865. — The  Controversy  with  Rome,  1850- 
1896. — The  Controversy  with  Unbelief,  1864-1896. — Education,  1843-1894- — 
Letters  of  Mr.  Gladstone  to  his  Children,  1847-1893- — Personal,  1826-1896. 


PUBLISHED   BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

SIXTY-FOUR  AND  SIXTY-SIX  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


MODERN  EGYPT 

By  the  EARL   OF   CROMER 
In  two  volumes.    With  portraits  and  maps.    $6.00  net. 

"For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  gentleman  who  was  originally  plain 
Evelyn  Baring,  later  a  baronet  in  succession  to  his  father,  and  who  still  later  rose 
through  successive  degrees  of  the  peerage  to  his  present  dignity  as  first  Earl  of 
Cromer,  was  practically  the  British  Viceroy  of  Egypt.  Possibly  no  ruler  in  the 
world  in  all  this  period  possessed  more  absolute  power.   .   .   . 

"  The  book  is  a  model  of  what  such  a  book  ought  to  be.  It  is  entirely  temperate 
and  modest  in  tone,  but  it  is  lucidly  explanatory  of  the  conditions  which  confronted 
Lord  Cromer  in  Egypt,  and  .  .  .  his  own  conduct  in  the  emergencies  that  arose 
from  those  conditions.  To  the  equipment  of  the  diplomat  and  the  financier  gen- 
erally conceded  to  him  must  now  be  added  some  of  the  best  gifts  of  the  historian 
— a  broad  outlook,  a  keen  insight,  a  patient  tolerance,  and  a  remarkably  vivid, 
strong,  and  nervous  style." — New  York  Herald. 

"  'Modem  Egypt'  is  without  exception  the  most  important  and  most  valuable 
book  of  its  particular  class  which  has  appeared  in  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  it 
will  be  so  appreciated  by  discerning  students  and  historians." — Public  Ledger. 

"Lord  Cromer  has  fittingly  crowned  his  labors  by  rendering  an  account  of  his 
stewardship  in  a  work  which  will  take  lasting  rank,  not  as  an  inspired  blue  book, 
but  as  a  narrative  of  intense  human  interest,  real  literary  power,  and  profound 
ethical  value. 

"Its  chief  merit  is  that  it  reveals,  in  language  that  brings  conviction  as  well 
as  enlightenment,  the  ultimate  significance  of  what  has  taken  place  in  Egypt  since 
the  beginning  of  the  English  regime.  There  are  books  which  treat  at  greater 
length  one  or  other  of  the  far-reaching  reforms  instituted  under  Lord  Cromer's 
prudent  direction.  There  are  also  books  in  which  far  more  emphasis  is  laid  on  the 
distinctively  dramatic  aspects  of  the  period.  But  there  is  no  book  which  affords 
such  a  thorough,  complete,  and  well-rounded  view  of  all  phases  in  the  making  of 
modern  Egypt." — The  Outlook. 

"That  they  are  memorable  and  important  volumes  need  scarcely  be  said,  and 
it  is  a  pleasure  to  add  that  their  crystal-clear  English  makes  them  easy  reading. 
The  student  of  human  progress,  whether  he  be  imperialist  or  anti-imperialist,  will 
find  much  to  fascinate  him  in  this  strange  story  of  facts,  with  its  tremendous 
contrast  between  the  cruelty  and  corruption  of  Oriental  rule,  depicted  in  the 
chapters  on  Ismail  Pasha,  and  the  iust  and  beneficent  order  of  things  described 
in  the  closing  pages.  British  idealism  and  love  of  justice  can  show  no  nobler 
monument  than  Lord  Cromer's  Egypt.   .   .  . 

"Lord  Cromer's  book  is  a  worthy,  modest,  clear-eyed  account  of  a  great  life- 
work,  a  book  so  simple,  sincere,  and  accurate  that  his  enemies  are  not  to  be  envied 
the  task  of  picking  it  to  pieces." — Chicago  Record-Herald. 

"No  representative  of  the  British  government  abroad  has,  in  recent  years,  had 
a  story  to  tell  quite  comparable  to  that  which  Lord  Cromer  unfolds  in  these  vol- 
umes. Fate  gave  him  a  remarkable  opportunity  and,  as  all  the  world  knows,  he 
rose  to  it  in  remarkable  fashion.   .   .   . 

"His  book  is  the  book  of  a  skilful,  intellectual,  and  high-minded  diplomat  who 
has  labored  always  with  unselfish  zeal,  and,  in  recording  the  events  in  which  he 
has  shared,  is  anxious  to  sink  all  personal  considerations  before  the  conviction  that 
the  truth  should  prevail." — New  York  Tribune. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 
SIXTY-FOUR  AND  SIXTY-SIX  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


MAY  27  ]94« 
^tC  1  9  19623 


^ 


hi 


'-AV^ 


U' 


REC'D  LD-URl 
&     JUN8    j^ 

JUL   6^9^ 


Form  L-9 
2Sm-2/ 43(5205) 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 


